| Abstract: |
Little has been published about the health of individuals living in Central Thailand during the Iron Age (ca. 2500 – 1500 BP). The site of Phromthin Thai provides an opportunity to examine indicators of systemic stress and signs of compromised health during this time period using human skeletal remains. Twenty-six Iron Age skeletons from the site were examined for indicators of systemic stress or compromised health in the form of porotic hyperostosis, cribra orbitalia, linear enamel hypoplasia, dental caries, and trauma. These results were compared with data from the Ban Pong Manao site in Central Thailand and from two sites in different parts of Northeast Thailand to determine whether frequencies of these indicators varied significantly at Phromthin Tai. We found that the skeletons from Phromthin Tai exhibited generally low frequencies of most of these skeletal indicators, and that the prevalence of most of these indicators were similar to that reported for Ban Pong Manao in Central Thailand, and Ban Chiang and Noen U-Loke in Northeast Thailand. The main difference was a surprisingly low frequency of dental caries compared to the other three sites, which may relate to some unknown difference in the diet.
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