Bone Mineral Density (BMD) Values for Non‐Adult Individuals of Different Ages From Hunter‐Gatherer Groups (Patagonia, Argentina)

Abstract

The relative underrepresentation of non-adult individuals in mortuary contexts of hunter-gatherers from the Argentinean Patagonia has been attributed to several factors, among which poor preservation related to the lower bone mineral density (BMD) of non-adults compared to adults has stood out. However, bioarchaeological studies estimating BMD are scarce, and clinical studies have focused primarily on a limited number of bone elements (e.g., lumbar vertebrae), from infants and children of modern societies whose diets, levels of physical activity, and sun exposure are not comparable to those of past hunter-gatherer societies. In this paper, we present reference values of volumetric bone mineral density (vBMD) of different skeletal elements corresponding tothree well-preserved non-adult individuals of diverse ages belonging to a Late Holocene hunter-gatherer osteological series from Lake Salitroso (Santa Cruz, Argentina). Quantitative computed tomography (QCT) scans were used to obtain vBMD values expressed in Hounsfield units (HU) and g/mm3. Although an overall increase in vBMD values with age is generally observed, thistrend is not consistent across all analyzed bones. These results constitute the first BMD data obtained for non-adult individuals from hunter-gatherer archaeological contexts in Argentina.