Health effects of European colonization: An investigation of skeletal remains from 19th to early 20th century migrant settlers in South Australia

Abstract

The British colony of South Australia, established in 1836, offered a fresh start to migrants hoping for a better life. A cohort of settlers buried in a section of St Mary's Anglican Church Cemetery (1847-1927) allocated for government funded burials was investigated to determine their health, with a focus on skeletal manifestations associated with metabolic deficiencies. Findings of St Mary's sample were compared with those published for contemporary skeletal samples from two British cemeteries, St Martin's, Birmingham, and St Peter's, Wolverhampton, to explore similarities and differences. To investigate the changing economic background of the St Mary's cohort, which may have influenced the location of their burial within the cemetery, the number and demographic profile of government funded burials and those in privately funded leased plots were compared. The study sample consisted of the skeletal remains of 65 individuals (20 adults, 45 subadults) from St Mary's Cemetery 'free ground' section. The bones and teeth of individuals in this cohort showed evidence of pathological manifestations, including areas of abnormal porosity in bone cortices in 9 adults and 12 subadults and flaring of metaphyses (one subadult) and costochondral junctions of the ribs (one subadult). Porous lesions of orbital roof bones (Types 3 to 4) were seen on three subadults. Macroscopic examination of teeth identified enamel hypoplastic defects and micro-CT scans showed areas of interglobular dentine. Comparison of St Mary's findings with the British samples revealed that prevalences of manifestations associated with vitamin C deficiency were higher at St Mary's and manifestations associated with vitamin D deficiency were lower respectively. The location of burial pattern at St Mary's Cemetery, from the mid-1840s to1860s, showed differences in the economic status of migrants. This pattern changed from the 1870s, which reflected improvements in the local economy and the economic recovery of the colony.

Fig 1

A. Location map: Position of St Mary’s Church and Cemetery in relation to the City of Adelaide and surrounding region. Reprinted [75] and under a CC BY license, with permission from the City of Marion Council, original copyright 2020. B. A schematic diagram of St Mary’s Anglican Church Cemetery. The hatched rectangle at the rear of the church building shows the free ground area. Illustrative purposes only and not to scale or representative of the number of burials/gravestone memorials in this cemetery.

Fig 2. St Mary’s burial records.

A comparison of the number of people listed a either buried in the free ground area or with no location of burial listed (n = 195), with those buried in leased plots with gravestone memorial markers (n = 227) in St Mary’s Cemetery, by decade of burial [73]. Red dashed line indicates the percentage of burials in the free ground area of this cemetery.

Fig 3. St Mary’s Cemetery—A visual representation of the number of individuals who could have been buried at the free ground with their month of burial as listed in church records (1847 to 1927) (n = 191) [73].

Fig 4. St Mary’s Cemetery—Age range at death—The number of infants under one year of age listed in St Mary’s burial records that could have been buried in the free ground area of the cemetery.

Fig 5. Infant, SMB 56.

Palate, inferior view, showing areas of abnormal porosity that extended throughout the alveolar process of the maxillae.

Fig 6. Subadult, SMB 28.

Porous lesions on the bones of the orbital roof. Red arrow indicates small pores in the right bone cortex. Blue arrow indicates exposed trabecular bone on the left.

Fig 7. St Mary’s Cemetery.

Micro-CT images. Adult, male, SMB 63. (a) Lower lateral permanent incisor with a post-mortem fracture in the crown. (b) Transverse slice: At the level of the IGD in the crown. (c) Transverse slice: Arrows show four areas of IGD. (d) Transverse slice: Arrows show three areas of IGD, image was angled to show location of IGD in three concentric layers. (e) White arrow shows IGD (internal) opposite an enamel hypoplastic defect red arrow (external).

Fig 8. Comparison of the skeletal manifestations observed in the subadult samples from St Mary’s Cemetery, South Australia and St Martin’s and St Peter’s Cemeteries, England and the number of individuals affected.