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Maia Casna

I am a researcher in osteoarchaeology with a particular interest in paleopathology and the impact of urbanization on respiratory health.

 

As respiratory health is increasingly affected by modern urbanization and industrialization, my research looks to the past to understand how earlier social transitions and economic developments impacted the human respiratory system. 


By comparing individuals from diverse settings that go beyond the rural/urban dichotomy, I explore how socially-related factors (such as socioeconomic inequality and cultural norms) contributed to respiratory disease.

 

My research aims to place social dynamics at the center of disease interpretation by analyzing patterns of respiratory illness in populations who may have shared the same physical environment but occupied distinctly different social roles and lived very different lives.

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Major respiratory-related research projects:

 

2021-2025 - The air we breathe. A study into the impact of historical socioeconomic changes on the respiratory health of past Dutch populations (ca. 470-1850 CE)

Funded by the Dutch Research Council (NWO)

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Respiratory-Related Publications

Davies-Barrett, A. M., Casna, M., & Inskip, S. A. (2025). “A custome lothsome”: Investigating the association between tobacco consumption and respiratory inflammation in two post-medieval English populations (c. CE 1500–1855). PLOS ONE, 20(5), e0324045.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0324045
Casna M., & Schrader S. A. (2025). Historical Trends and Risk Factors in Chronic Maxillary Sinusitis Among Dutch Pre-Adults (475–1866 CE). American Journal of Biological Anthropology 186(4), e70050. 
https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.70050
Casna, M., Davies-Barrett, A. M., Schrader, S. (2024). Exploring the impact of tobacco consumption on the respiratory health of two Dutch skeletal populations (1300–1829 CE). World Archaeology, 1-18.
https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.2024.2425814 
Pace V., Casna M., & Schrader S. A. (2024). Using computed tomography to diagnose chronic frontal sinusitis in the skeletal remains of a post-medieval Dutch rural community (AD 1829–1866). Journal of Archaeological Science 170, 106041.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2024.106041
Casna M., & Schrader S. A. (2024). Chronic Maxillary Sinusitis: A comparison of osteological and CT methods of diagnosis. International Journal of Paleopathology 45: 30-34.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpp.2024.04.001
Casna M., & Schrader S. A. (2024). The urban sea: Cribra orbitalia, porotic hyperostosis, linear enamel hypoplasia, and sinusitis in three diachronic urban sites from the Dutch province of Zeeland (1030–1800 CE). International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 34(3), e3302.
https://doi.org/10.1002/oa.3302
Casna M., Roelofs J. J. H., Schats R., Verbist B., & Bruntjes T. D. (2024). Association between morphological features in the cochlear promontory and mastoid Process: Implications for Identifying middle ear diseases in human skeletal remains. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 56, 104538. 
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2024.104538
Davies-Barrett, A. M., Casna, M., Boyd, D., & Inskip, S. (2024). An analysis of interobserver variability in the recording of maxillary sinusitis in human osteoarchaeological remains. International Journal of Palaeopathology, 34(2): e3293.
https://doi.org/10.1002/oa.3293
Casna M., Schats R., Hoogland M. L. P., & Schrader S. A. (2023). A distant city: assessing the impact of Dutch socioeconomic developments on urban and rural health using respiratory disease as a proxy, International Journal of Paleopathology 42: 34-45.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpp.2023.07.003
Casna M. & Schrader S. A. (2022). Urban beings: a bioarchaeological approach to socioeconomic status, cribra orbitalia, porotic hyperostosis, linear enamel hypoplasia, and sinusitis in the early-modern Northern Low Countries (A.D. 1626–1850), Bioarchaeology International 6 (4): 217-232. https://doi.org/10.5744/bi.2022.0001 [Open Access link]
Casna M., Burrell C. L., Schats R., Hoogland M. L. P., & Schrader S. A. (2021). Urbanization and respiratory stress in the Northern Low Countries: a comparative study of chronic maxillary sinusitis in two early modern sites from the Netherlands (AD 1626–1866), International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 31 (5): 891-901. https://doi.org/10.1002/oa.3006
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