中文导读

史学家解释十八、十九世纪欧洲佝偻病时，常指向工厂、煤烟与室内劳作造成的紫外线不足。2026 年 11 月 5 日发表于 Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology、并经 Science News 与杜伦大学报道的一项研究补充了另一层因素：小冰期降温也可能提高儿童缺乏维生素 D 的风险。阅读时可留意 vitamin、climate、mineral、disorder、industrial 等词，并注意作者强调气候只是多因素之一。

正文

When historians explain rickets in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Europe, they often point to factories, coal smoke, and indoor work that blocked ultraviolet light. A study published on 5 November 2026 adds another layer: cooling during the Little Ice Age may also have raised the risk that children would lack vitamin D.
Researchers led by Ellen Kendall at Durham University examined thirty teeth from twenty-one people buried between 1711 and 1829 in a Quaker cemetery at Coach Lane in North Shields, northern England. The ground was excavated in 2010 and held 236 burials. Teeth grow on a set schedule, so defects in dentin — the hard tissue under enamel — can mark ages when the body failed to mineralize calcium. The team found recurring bands of disordered mineral metabolism, often in infancy and childhood. Some skeletons also showed signs of rickets, a bone disorder linked to weak vitamin D.
Burial records helped place the community in climate history. Birth years could be estimated for 109 people listed in the register. Of these, ninety-one were born within ten years after a major volcanic eruption, and forty-one were born when volcanic activity coincided with unusually low solar output. Such events can cool the atmosphere and cut sunlight. In the later Little Ice Age, northern Europe cooled by about two to three degrees Celsius. Colder, wetter winters may have kept children indoors or heavily bundled, with little skin exposed to ultraviolet light.
Earlier accounts often blamed industrial pollution alone. Around that time North Shields was shifting from a fishing village toward an industrial port, so smoke and indoor labor still mattered. Yet the dental pattern suggests climate shocks were an extra difficulty on top of those local changes. Outside reporting from Science News, Durham University, and the journal press office stresses the same caution: climate was one factor among diet, latitude, gender roles, and pollution.
The authors do not claim that volcanoes alone caused rickets. Sample sizes for teeth remain limited, and birth years cannot be matched to unnamed graves. Still, the evidence suggests that childhood vitamin D health in this period cannot be read only through factories. Weather, sunlight, and human behavior shaped risk together. Bioarchaeology gains when climate chronology joins the usual industrial story, giving a fuller picture of why so many past children struggled with soft bones.

新闻来源

• Science News · Little Ice Age cooling in Europe may have raised the risk of rickets (5 Nov 2026)
• Durham University · Centuries-old cemetery reveals climate link to Industrial Revolution disease (5 Nov 2026)
• Frontiers News · Centuries-old cemetery helps scientists identify climate shocks as driver of Industrial Revolution disease (5 Nov 2026)
• Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology · Kendall et al. (DOI 10.3389/fearc.2026.1909791)

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