Horocholyn Kalyna
Biography
My PhD research is focused on reconstructing health in medieval Lithuania from the 14th-17th centuries CE. I am investigating the relationship between childhood health and long-term effects on bone growth. I will be using stunted limb lengths and enamel hypoplastic defects as markers of non-specific stress during early development to determine levels of health in childhood. These markers will then be correlated to levels of cortical density through X-ray analysis. My hypothesis is that adults with greater levels of stress in childhood will have reduced bone density, indicating that poor health in childhood has negative consequences into adulthood. These results can be applied to other archaeological populations and modern populations for a better understanding of child morbidity.