BACKGROUND Inequalities in the health of different sections of populations are well recognized but were difficult to demonstrate before death registration was introduced in 1837. In the early years of civil registration, geographical and sex differences in mortality were clearly recognized, as were occupational hazards, but socio-economic differences were barely explored in the Annual Reports o...

Monumental tombs reflect various social, cultural, architectural, religious, economic, and engineering features of a community. However, environmental weathering, natural disasters, poor maintenance, vandalism, and misuse unfortunately pose serious threats to these cultural assets. Historic monuments are often exposed to the highest risk due to their vulnerability. The Ottoman-style Nişancı Ham...

Lead poisoning has been suggested as being partially responsible for the ‘demise’ of the British military in the West Indies during the colonial era. Lead was pervasive in the colonial environment, being employed in items such as eating and cooking utensils, water catchments and alcohol distillation equipment. This preliminary study represents the first attempt to determine whether this suggest...

Was the mortality associated with the deadliest known epidemic in human history, the Black Death of 1347-1351, selective with respect to preexisting health conditions ("frailty")? Many researchers have assumed that the Black Death was so virulent, and the European population so immunologically naïve, that the epidemic killed indiscriminately, irrespective of age, sex, or frailty. If this were t...

We report here the results of mtDNA analysis of remains exhumed in July, 1995 from Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Kearney, Nebraska, that are thought to be those of Jesse James. The remains were poorly preserved, presumably due to wet and slightly acidic soil conditions, and insufficient DNA for analysis was obtained from two bone samples. However, two of four teeth, and two hairs recovered in 1978 fro...

Abstract Estimates suggest that over 15,000 people are buried at East End Cemetery, a historic African American cemetery in Richmond, Virginia, until recently received no public funding for upkeep. Here, we present case study analysis and potentially replicable methodology counting locating unmarked burial depressions non-forested areas using low-cost sUAV (drone) simple, hydrology-based geogra...

The skeletal remains of 17 people buried in the Eaton Ferry Cemetery in northern North Carolina provide a means of examining health and infectious disease experience in the XIX century South. The cemetery appears to contain the remains of African Americans enslaved on the Eaton family estate from approximately 1830-1850, and thus offers a window into the biological impacts of North American sla...