Windover (8BR46) represents one of the most ancient and well-preserved skeletal populations in North America. Excavated in the 1980s from a mortuary pond near Florida’s eastern coast, the remains represent over 168 individuals, from neonates to elderly, enabling an evaluation of health at all stages of life. Through the application of the Western Hemisphere Health Index (Steckel and Rose, 2002), the overall health of the Windover population has been assessed and compared to populations utilizing various subsistence practices, in a variety of geographic regions spanning 7,000 years of human history. This book is the product of my PhD dissertation, which I completed in 2006 at Florida State University under the direction of Dr. Glen H. Doran. To read more about the fascinating Windover skeletons, please see my book, Life and Death at Windover: Excavations of a 7,000-Year-Old Pond Cemetery, published by the Florida Historical Society Press (available on Amazon). Following a thirteen-year career as a firefighter/paramedic, Dr. Wentz retired from the Orlando Fire Department to pursue advanced degrees in anthropology. She graduated from Florida State University with an MS and PhD in Anthropology, specializing in the analysis of human remains with foci on ancient disease and population health. Dr. Wentz has done skeletal work in Florida, St. Croix, England, and Ukraine, and obtained experience in forensics at the C.A. Pound Human Identification Laboratory at the University of Florida, Gainesville. She has taught courses in physical anthropology, human osteology, medical anthropology, and forensic anthropology at Florida State University and her work has been featured on the History Channel, the Weather Channel, and in Archaeology Magazine. She is the author of seven books. Her first novel, The Mass of Men, won the 2014 Florida Authors and Publishers Association Silver Medal President's Award in Genre Fiction and recently made IndieReader's "Best Of" list. Her memoir, Let Burn: The Making and Breaking of a Firefighter/Paramedic, also won a FAPA Silver Medal in 2014. Her latest book, The Body Blog: Explorations in Science and Culture, won the 2016 FAPA Silver Medal President's Award in Adult Non-Fiction. Please visit Dr. Wentz' website at rachelwentzbooks.com.