A new publication by SAFS researcher, Dr Julia Beaumont, demonstrates that the stories of our childhood are told by our teeth. A study of the skeletons of children who lived in fourteenth-century Lincolnshire have used patterns in their teeth to track the malnutrition they experienced during periods of famine.

The study focussed on the devastating period surrounding the Black Death (1348-1350), which included years of famine during the little ice age and the great bovine pestilence (an epidemic that killed two-thirds of cattle in England and Wales). We found that the biological scars of childhood deprivation during this time left lasting marks on the body.

These findings suggest that early nutritional stress, whether in the 14th century or today, can have consequences that endure well beyond childhood.

Read more at – https://theconversation.com/medieval-skeletons-reveal-the-lasting-damage-of-childhood-malnutrition-new-study-262081
and the full story at -
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adw7076

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