Skip to content. Skip to navigation. Skip to search.

della cook

Della Collins Cook

Professor of Anthropology
Adjunct Associate Professor of Anthropology
School of Liberal Arts, IUPUI
Director, Osteology and Paleopathology Lab
Affiliate Faculty, William R. Adams Zooarchaeology Lab

812-855-6368 | Email | Office Hours
  • Ph.D., University of Chicago (1976)
  • M.A., University of Chicago (1971)
  • A.B., Cornell University (1969)

Geographical Areas of Specialization: Americas, Aegean

Topical Interests: Human osteology, Paleopathology, Mortuary practices, Demography

Current Courses: B310/B600 Bioanthropology: A History of Ideas, E105 Darwinian Medicine

Selected Publications


Profile:

My work in skeletal biology applies insights drawn from health studies of modern humans to the study of ancient peoples. I am particularly interested in the infectious diseases that affect the skeleton and in developmental defects in the teeth. I began working in 1970 on the relationship between subsistence and health by comparing limb bone lengths, and by inference, stature, in children from two prehistoric Midwestern cemetery sites that pre-dated and post-dated the beginning of heavy dependence on maize. Was the hunting and gathering way of life the original good life, as it is often portrayed? My research suggests that a marked deterioration in health attends the adoption of agriculture, but that at least some agricultural groups suffered few health consequences after the use of maize was established. Paleopathology of Woodland and Mississippian Indians in the Midwest continues to be the focus of my research. My most recent work with several colleagues applies ancient DNA technology to understanding the epidemiology of tuberculosis among Mississippian maize farmers.

Early in my career I characterized the diseases that leave evidence on bone according to their epidemiological characteristics, and applied the models that resulted to the evidence for disease in prehistoric populations. A number of interesting observations followed. My work suggested that non-venereal syphilis was endemic in the ancient Midwest. More recently I have explored evidence for congenital transmission of treponemal disease in later prehistory in the Americas as well as in slave populations from Barbados.  Mary Lucas Powell and I have published an edited volume. My work on the vertebrae of Australopithecus afarensis showed that vertebral lesions most resemble Scheuermann's disease, a condition that follows strenuous athletic activity in adolescents. Its presence in australopithecines suggests that strenuous climbing or lifting was part of their behavioral repertoire. Research in collaboration with J.E. Buikstra in the 1980s suggested that tuberculosis, or a tuberculosis-like disease, appeared on the New World only after there were population aggregates of tens of thousands of people. Mark Braun, Susan Pfeiffer and I were able to confirm this diagnosis using ancient DNA in 1998.

Since 1993 I have participated in Prof. Anne Pyburn's excavation at Chau Hiix, Belize. We have a field school there every other spring semester, allowing my students to gain experience in excavating burials. We have begun to publish the archaeology and physical anthropology of this unusual ancient Maya population. I am interested in mortuary practices, and have written on funerary masks and house floor burials in Midwestern sites. Cheryl Munson and I are currently working on a project on artifacts made from human bones from Mississippian sites in the Ohio Valley, and I am very interested in using physical anthropology to understand aspects of ancient beliefs and behaviors.


Selected Publications:

2006 Invisible Hands: Women in Bioarchaeology.  In Bioarchaeology: The Contextual Study of Human Remains. Jane E. Buikstra and Lane A Beck, eds. Elsevier: Amsterdam. Pp. 131-193. With:  Mary Lucas Powell, Jane E. Buikstra, Georgieann Bogdan, Mario M. Castro, Patrick D. Horne, David R. Hunt, Richard T. Koritzer, Sheila Ferraz Mendonca de Souza, Mary Kay Sanford, Laurie Saunders, Glaucia Aparecida Malerba Sene, Lynne Sullivan, and John. J. Swetnam.
2006 The Evolution of American Paleopathology.  In:  Bioarchaeology: The Contextual Study of Human Remains.  Jane E. Buikstra and Lane A Beck, eds.  Elsevier: Amsterdam. Pp. 281-322. With Mary Lucas Powell
2006 The Old Physical Anthropology and the New World: A Look at the Accomplishments of an Antiquated Paradigm. In:  Bioarchaeology: The Contextual Study of Human Remains.  Jane E. Buikstra and Lane A Beck, eds. Elsevier: Amsterdam. Pp. 27-72.
2006 Tuberculosis in the New World: A Study of Ribs From the Schild Mississippian Population, West-Central Illinois.  Memorias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz Vol. 101 (Suppl. II ) with Jennifer Raff and Frederika Kaestle
2006 Joe Gay Mound Group, Crematory A Excavations.  In:  Illinois Hopewell and Late Woodland Mounds: The Excavation of Gregory Perino. Kenneth Farnsworth Ed., ITARP Studies in Archaeology No.4. Pp. 498-500.  University of Illinois Press: Urbana. With Ann Palkovich
2006 Bioanthropology Bibliography: Studies of Human Remains and Mortuary Practices that use Perino Mound-excavation data.  In: Illinois Hopewell and Late Woodland Mounds: The Excavation of Gregory Perino. Kenneth Farnsworth, ed., ITARP Studies in Archaeology No. 4. Pp. 125-136. University of Illinois Press
2005 The Myth of Syphilis:  A Natural History of North American Treponematosis. Mary Lucas Powell and Della Collins Cook, eds. Gainesville: University Press of Florida
2003 Neglected ancestors: Dr. Selby W. Plummer. . Paleopathology Newsletter No. 123:11-16.
2002 Rhinomaxillary syndrome in the absence of leprosy: an exercise in
differential diagnosis. In: The Past and Present of Leprosy: Congress Proceedings, C. Roberts, O. Dutour, G. Palfi and M. Lewis, eds. British Archaeological Report (International Series) No. 1054. Archaeopress: Oxford.
2001 Neglected ancestors: Etienne and Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire.
Paleopathology Newsletter No. 116:17-21.
2001 Residential mortuary practices and skeletal biology at the Late
Mississippian Hovey Lake site, Posey County, Indiana. Midcontinental Journal of Archeology 26:1-52. With C.A. Munson.
2000 Trepanation or trephination? The orthography of paleopathology.
Paleopathology Newsletter No. 109.
1999 Physical anthropology in the field: recognizing cremation,
defleshing, exposure and secondary burial. In: The Practical Impact of Science on Field Archaeology. S. Pike and S. Gitin, eds. Wiener
Laboratory Publication No. 3. Pp. 43-6. Archetype Press: London.
1999 Skeletal evidence for nutrition in the Mesolithic and Neolithic: a
view from Franchthi Cave. In: Palaeodiet in the Aegean. SJ Vaughan and WDE Coulson, eds. David Browne (Oxbow Books).
1999 Sex differences in trace elements: status or self-selection? In:
Gender in Paleopathological Perspective. A. Grauer and P. Stuart-Macadam, eds. Cambridge University Press. With K.D. Hunt.
1998 Brief communication: gender and sex: vive la difference. With
P.L. Walker. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 106:255-259.
1998 DNA from Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex identified in North
American, Pre-Columbian human skeletal remains. With M. Braun and S. Pfeiffer. Journal of Archaeological Sciences 25:271-277.
1997 Book Review. [Mortuary Practices and Skeletal Remains at
Teotihuacan.] International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 7:563-5.
1997 Late Postclassic tooth filing at Chau Hiix and Tipu, Belize. With
L. M. Havill, D.M. Warren, K.D. Jacobi, and K.A. Pyburn. In: Bones of the Maya: Studies of Ancient Skeletons, S. L. Whittington and D. M. Reed, eds. Smithsonian Inst. Press. Pp. 89-104.
1997 Skeletal evidence for child abuse: a physical anthropological
perspective. With P.A. Walker and P. Lambert. Journal of Forensic Sciences 42:196-207.
1994 Dental evidence for congenital syphilis (and its absence) before and after the Conquest of the New World. In L'Origine de la Syphilis en
Europe: avant ou apres 1493? Paris:Errance.
1994 The human remains from Carter Ranch Pueblo, Arizona: health in
isolation. With M.E. Danforth and S.G. Knick) The human remains from Carter Ranch Pueblo, Arizona: health in isolation. American Antiquity 59:88-101.
1993 What diseases plagued ancient Egyptians? A century of controversy considered. With J.E. Buikstra and B. Baker. In: W.V. Davies and R. Walker, eds. Biological Anthropology and the Study of Ancient Egypt. British Museum Press: London.
1993 African burial ground addenda. (letter). Archaeology 46(4):10.
   
1992 (with K.P. Jacobi, R.S. Corruccini and J.S. Handler) Congenital syphilis in the past: slaves at Newton Plantation, Barbados, West Indies. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 89:145-158. 1992.
1993 Paleopatologia. In Paleopatologia e Paleoepidemiologia: Estudos Multidisciplinares. (with J. E. Buikstra) In A. J. Arajo, Ed. Fundacao Oswaldo Cruz: Rio de Janeiro.
1991 Epidemiology of circular caries: a perspective from prehistoric skeletons. In A Life in Science: Papers in Honor of J. Lawrence Angel. J.E. Buikstra , Ed. Kampsville: Center for American Archaeology and Bioanthropology Unit, American Anthropological Society.
1984 Subsistence and health in the Lower Illinois Valley: osteological evidence. In Paleopathology at the Origins of Agriculture. M.N. Cohen and G.J. Armelagos, Eds. San Francisco: Academic Press.
1983 (with J.E.Buikstra, C.J. DeRousseau, and D.C. Johanson.) Vertebral osteoarthritis and osteophytosis in the Afar australopithecines. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 60:83-101.
1981 Koniag Eskimo tooth ablation: was Hrdlicka right after all?
Current Anthropology 22:159 163.
1981 Pre Columbian tuberculosis: prehistoric disease in biocultural perspective. With J.E. Buikstra. In Pre Columbian Tuberculosis in the Americas. J.E. Buikstra, ed., Northwestern Archaeological Program Scientific Papers.
1981 Clay funerary masks in Illinois Hopewell. With K. Farnsworth.
Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology 6:3 15.
1981 Mortality, age structure, and status in the interpretation of stress indicators in prehistoric skeletons: a dental example from the Lower Illinois Valley. In The Archaeology of Death, R. Chapman and K. Randsborg, Eds. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
1980 (with J.E.Buikstra) Palaeopathology: an American account. Annual Reviews in Anthropology 9: 433-70.
1980 (with J.E. Buikstra) Health and differential survival in prehistoric
populations: prenatal dental defects. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 51: 649-664.
1980 Hereditary enamel hypoplasia in a prehistoric Indian child. J. of
Dental Research 59/9:1522.
1980 Paget's disease and treponematosis in prehistoric Midwestern
Indians: the case for misdiagnosis. Ossa 7:41 63.
1979 Subsistence base and health in prehistoric Illinois River Valley: evidence from the human skeleton. Medical Anthropology 3:109-124.
Back to Top