NEWS

By BROOKE EIDENMILLER
UNC-CH News Services

CHAPEL HILL -- A real-life Indiana Jones? Dr. Clark Larsen of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s anthropology department admits his work as a bioarchaeologist is nothing like that of the rugged hero Harrison Ford made popular in the action movie series. Larsen carefully studies skeletons from around the world to reconstruct the past.

His latest book, "Skeletons in Our Closet: Revealing Our Past through Bioarchaeolgy" (Princeton University Press), scheduled for release in June, explains what kinds of secrets a skeleton can reveal about a person, a population and an entire history of health. By studying over time such traits as teeth or bone size, height fluctuations and changes produced by the body, bioarchaeologists evaluate the human condition, including quality of life and health.

"The skeleton is a wonderfully informative record of a person’s lifetime," says Larsen. "It’s a retrospective picture of what that person did with their life."

Larsen’s new book investigates the field of bioarchaeology, the study of human remains from archaeological settings. "Skeletons in Our Closet" is a non-technical and personal account of what bioarchaeologists have learned about the lives and lifestyles of earlier peoples from their bones and teeth.

After writing "Bioarchaeology: Interpreting Behavior from the Human Skeleton," a 1997 release aimed at academia, Larsen wanted to reach a new audience. His latest book stresses that the biology of the past plays a large role in shaping the biology of modern human life. Fighting diseases and other health problems requires current medical study along with a knowledge of the past. The skeletons at archaeological sites are the only remaining biological evidence that can give scientists that context directly.

The book focuses on several North American populations and how new people, diets and activities changed health patterns. The pre-historic populations and their transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture is of particular interest to Larsen.

"Most of my research is on human remains in the last 10,000 years, a very important time for human evolution," he says. "During that time, humans shifted their emphasis from eating totally wild plants and animals to eating completely domesticated plants and animals."

Larsen says many people mistakenly believe using new food-gathering techniques made people healthier. Instead, the quality of life worldwide declined as activity levels decreased and non-nutritional food sources such as corn were introduced into the diet.

European colonists’ arrival in the New World led to a lifestyle change for both settlers and Native Americans. A study of American Indian skeletons shows a steady health decline as Europeans introduced unhealthy diets, an increased workload and epidemics such as smallpox and measles.

"Skeletons in our Closet" also explores population decline and extinction in Spanish Florida, colonists’ movements westward and current health issues. Larsen stresses that today’s lifestyle is a product of many modifications in diet, activity level and health over time.

"Our health and lifestyles today didn’t appear overnight," he says. "They had a historical context."

Because life expectancy is now longer than ever, Larsen says many people believe American health has peaked. But as cancer, obesity and other diseases continue to plague Americans, healthful living remains a challenge. Cheap food and new technology contribute to obesity, for example.

"People expend little energy as they drive to fast-food restaurants, only to eat high-fat, high-caloric meals," he says.

Although stringent sanitation laws and improved medical technology have improved American health, diet and lifestyle trends have hindered these advances.

Written during the summer of 1998, the book directly relates to Larsen’s work in the field. A typical project begins when Larsen and other bioarchaeologists are called to excavate a cemetery from a construction site. In the span of a month or two, the skeletons are studied. Once this process is complete, Larsen said the skeletons’ stories are revealed. The results either reflect bioarchaeologists’ original ideas or surprise them with new information. Skeletons at each new site can reveal different ways of interpreting the past.

Larsen will embark on two new projects in the coming months. Traveling to Denmark in June, the site of his next major project, Larsen will examine the effects of Renaissance Europe’s Bubonic plague and deteriorating urban conditions on medieval populations. And in the first project of its kind, Larsen, along with another bioarchaeologist and an economic historian, will direct bioarcheologists around the world to study the global history of health. This 10-year, worldwide effort will analyze 200,000 skeletons and catalog their features in a large database.

A new World Wide Web site and a journal will result from the mission. Technological deficiencies and geographic barriers have prevented past project attempts.

"Because of the demise of the Iron Curtain, we can work in China, Russia and Vietnam, areas inaccessible 20 years ago," he says.

The Amos Hawley distinguished term professor of anthropology, Larsen joined the Carolina faculty in 1993. He currently serves as president of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists. Founded in 1929, the association is the largest and oldest national and international organization devoted to the science of physical anthropology.

The new hard-bound book, available at bookstores and on the Princeton catalog Web site, http://pup.princeton.edu/, will sell for $35.

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(Eidenmiller is a junior journalism and mass communication major from Hickory.)

Larsen can be reached at (919) 962-3844.

News Services photo contact: Dan Sears, 962-8592