This research creates and compiles data to reinterpret the history of human health in Europe from the late Paleolithic era to the early twentieth century. During this period, human health was transformed enormously by the transition from foraging to farming; the rise of cities and complex forms of social and political organization; European colonization; and industrialization. Skeletons are the best single source available to scholars for measuring and analyzing very long-term trends in health. With a trans-Atlantic network of collaborators, the project will gather and analyze skeletal measures of health from 40,000 individuals who lived in Europe over the past 10,000 years. Specific information collected from skeletons housed in numerous European museums includes: age at death; sex; stature inferred from long-bone lengths; dental decay; degenerative joint disease; trauma; skeletal infections; and the occurrence of specific diseases such as tuberculosis, rickets, and leprosy. Project researchers will also scour the published and the gray literature of site reports that contain information on the heights of 100,000 men and women. When combined with ecological information to be collected, the data will have numerous uses, including studies of: (1) health, climate and habitat; (2) health and the transition to farming; (3) the social and economic causes and consequences of long-term changes in health; (4) the health of women and children; (5) patterns of trauma and violence; (6) biological inequality; (7) aging and health; (8) health during the rise and fall of civilizations; a
