Paleoepidemiology of Infectious Disease in the Dickson Mounds Population

Abstract

The major focus of paleopathology has been the delimiting of disease in time and space. Information about the history of specific diseases is the objective of many of these studies. While the chronological and geographical dimensions of paleopathology contribute significantly to our knowledge of disease, there are limits to this approach, which often fails to consider the interaction of biology and culture in the disease of prehistoric populations.