Analiza antropologică preliminară a unui eșantion scheletic din cimitirul de epocă otomană de la Constanța Boreal: aspecte demografice și modificări patologice
The preliminary anthropological analysis of a skeletal sample from the Ottoman era cemetery in Constanța Boreal: demographic aspects and pathological changes

Summary/Abstract: The 18th-19th century Ottoman cemetery in Constanța Boreal, researched between 2019-2020, has 314 graves, of which 49 were analyzed in this paper. A minimum number of 50 individuals resulted: 26 from the subadult category (19 from the children's group, 5 infants and 2 adolescents) and 24 adults (12 young adults, 6 mature adults, 5 old adults and one individual with an uncertain age group). Sex was determined only in adults and highlighted 8 males and 15 females, (sex ratio = 0.53), and one individual with uncertain sex. Life expectancy at birth for the entire skeletal group has a value of 21.07 years. The analysed population shows an obvious sexual dimorphism, the average height of male individuals (165.8 cm – middle) being 9.5 cm higher than in the case of the female series (156.3 cm – upper middle). Other aspects analyzed in this paper were bone and dental abnormalities, pathologies and traumas. We found many types of diseases (congenital, dental, infectious, metabolic, joint, circulatory and traumatic complications), and some of them result from deficiencies of minerals (Zn, Fe, Se) and vitamins (A, B6, B9, B12, C, D), necessary for the growth and development of the body. Most likely, these deficiencies were the basis of very high mortality among subadults, especially those in the group of children (3-12 years). The cemetery from Constanța Boreal is the first discovered in Dobruja’s urban environment and is anthropologically analyzed.

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