Ancient Human Bone Microstructure Case Studies from Medieval England
This chapter discusses two case studies using limb bone microstructure samples from a medieval (eleventh to sixteenth centuries) English skeletal collection in Canterbury. The site represents low and high socio-economic status (SES) groups. Firstly, the e
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Ancient Human Bone Microstructure Case Studies from Medieval England Meg M. Walker, Emma M. Street, Rosie Pitfield, Justyna J. Miszkiewicz, Sharon L. Brennan-Olsen, and Patrick Mahoney
3.1
Introduction
The reconstruction of human health in past populations can be successfully undertaken by analysing their surviving skeletal remains that derive from archaeological and historical contexts [1]. Outside of standard gross anatomical examination techniques that include recording the morphology and morphometry of different skeletal parts (see Chap. 2), mapping bone histological variation can contribute a more in-depth understanding of skeletal metabolic activity in past humans [2, 3]. While ancient samples cannot be studied using dynamic or experimental bone histology, multiple studies have shown that, preservation permitting, static histology can successfully yield data about cortical bone density and its geometric properties [2–5]. Many different research themes of past human bone histology have been covered to date, including ageing [6], sex-specific division of labour [7], lifestyle [8] and osteoporosis [9]. However, little research has been done using samples that derive from
M. M. Walker · J. J. Miszkiewicz (*) School of Archaeology and Anthropology, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] E. M. Street · R. Pitfield · P. Mahoney School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] S. L. Brennan-Olsen Department of Medicine-Western Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia Australian Institute for Musculoskeletal Science (AIMSS), University of Melbourne and Western Health, St Albans, VIC, Australia e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019 J. J. Miszkiewicz et al. (eds.), Bone Health, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-7256-8_3
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distinct socio-economic status (SES) groupings. In 2016 [3], two of our team reported the first ever large sample-based femoral bone microstructural patterns comparing low and high SES medieval English groups of adults (also see Chap. 2). We showed that low SES skeletons of adult males and females developed poorer bone health when compared to higher SES individuals. In an earlier 2012 study [10], Miszkiewicz reported differences between the low and high SES groups in their dental health and associated longevity. It was inferred that more prevalent childhood physiological disruption events and higher mortality may have characterised lower SES medieval individuals. As bone and dental enamel tissues respond to external and internal biological and environmental factors [11–14], an analysis of their association can elucidate how and if adult bone quality and quantity accounts for early ontogenetic developmental disturbances. This is the aim of the first part of this chapter. In the second part of this chapter, we report on the relationships between cortical bone dimen
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