By Dr Steve McCabe
AROUND 11,000 years ago the World was in the grip of a sociological transformation. The Neolithic Revolution transformed the human race from hunter-gatherers into more sedentary agriculturalists. Instead of small isolated family groups wandering for miles in search of food people began to congregate in villages and towns, developing divisions of labour (and in status) and establishing sustainable agriculture and industry.
But any such transformation must come at a cost. One of the consequences of the Neolithic Revolution was the appearance of osteoporosis. The reasons for this are not clear but it appears that a relative switch to a more sedentary lifestyle was, at least in part, to blame.