Teeth from a North Shields burial ground have revealed that climate shocks may have been a key factor in childhood vitamin D deficiency and rickets during the Industrial Revolution, according to a Durham University study.
Study of dental defects and burial records
Researchers examined dental defects alongside a burial register to gain a fuller understanding of factors leading to childhood vitamin D deficiency and associated illnesses in late 18th-century England. The study re-examined teeth from the disused Quaker burial ground at Coach Lane in North Shields, Tyne and Wear.
As the nation's agricultural economy shifted to an industrial one between approximately 1760 and 1840, pollution, gruelling working conditions, poor housing, and restricted access to sunlight fuelled disease. Rickets, where the developing skeleton fails to mineralise correctly, was widespread amongst youngsters.
Climate as an overlooked factor
Urbanisation, latitude, and socio-economic circumstances have traditionally been regarded as the primary drivers, but researchers say climate has been largely ignored. The study's first author, Dr Ellen Kendall, an archaeological researcher at Durham University, said: "Most people buried at Coach Lane lived during periods affected by environmental differences in UV light availability, which may explain the high rates of rickets and defects in tooth dentin, and suggest a major problem with vitamin D deficiency."
She explained that the Little Ice Age - a prolonged cooling phase spanning the 13th to 19th centuries triggered by increased volcanic and reduced solar activity - restricted UV exposure. However, how climatic variation may have affected human health during that era had not been thoroughly investigated previously.
Findings from Coach Lane cemetery
The Coach Lane cemetery remained in active use from 1711 to 1829, roughly when North Shields evolved from a fishing village into an industrial port. The cemetery underwent excavation in 2010, yielding 236 burials. Using 30 teeth from 21 unidentified individuals, the research team studied mineralisation failures, when dentine, the tooth's inner layer, fails to fully harden into calcified tissue.
Dr Kendall said mineralisation failures can be a routine aspect of tooth development, but may indicate vitamin D deficiency if they occur at consistent intervals and are separated by normal dentine. Because teeth develop on a fixed natural timeline, the team could establish that failures predominantly occurred during infancy and childhood.
Turning to the burial register, which documents ages and years of death for many of the 197 individuals recorded, birth years were calculated for 109 community members by subtracting age at death from year of death. The data showed that out of the 109 people with known birth years, 91 were born within 10 years following a major volcanic eruption. The findings, published in the journal Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology, revealed that 41 were born during periods when low solar output and volcanic activity coincided.
Dr Kendall said: "Humans are incredibly complicated. We're physical creatures defined by our biology. We're cultural creatures defined by beliefs and the systems they reinforce. And we're products of our environment. No part overrides another; they all interact." She added: "We think of climate instability as a modern challenge, but it's really nothing new as human problems go. Whether it's pandemics, economic crises, or climate change, it's important to understand the ways that people have adapted to similar issues in the past and use that information to help people thrive in the future."
