Introduction

Growth is a highly regulated process controlled by the endocrine system. Postnatal growth begins rapidly and gradually slows and stabilises at around 3 years of age. At puberty there is another episode of growth acceleration which, after a period of peak velocity, slows until the epiphyseal ends of the long bones fuse and growth ceases (Karlberg, 1998). The final growth outcome of an individual is the result of a complex interaction between genetic and environmental factors. Secular trends, showing a systematic increase in stature between generations, indicate that improvements in nutrition and healthcare have enabled populations to reach ever greater proportions of their genetic potential (Henneberg, 1997). The physical growth and development of children is a sensitive indicator of the quality of the social, economic and political environment in which they live. For this reason child growth standards are regularly used as measures of the general health status of the overall community, where poor growth is taken as an indicator of unfavourable conditions (Johnston and Zimmer, 1989).

Growth studies are among the most popular and widely published areas of investigation carried out on child remains in bioarchaeology, with an abundance of excellent texts on the subject (Tanner, 1978; Bogin, 1988a; Eveleth and Tanner, 1990; Ulijaszek et al., 1998; Hoppa and Fitzgerald, 1999). Studies of past childhood growth have been used to provide valuable information on nutritional stress, secular trends, prolonged skeletal growth and delayed maturation between contrasting archaeological groups (e.g. hunter–gatherers and agriculturalists, urban and rural), and when compared to modern growth data.