This paper reviews the mechanisms of injury and the types of fractures that most commonly affect the human skeleton, presents descriptive protocols for cranial and postcranial fractures adapted from clinical and forensic medicine, and summarizes anatomically the injuries most likely to be found in archaeological skeletons along with their most common causes and complications. Mechanisms of injury are categorized as direct and indirect trauma, stress, and fracture that occurs secondary to pathology. These are considered to be the proximate, or most direct, causes of injury and they are influenced by intrinsic biological factors such as age and sex, and extrinsic environmental factors, both physical and sociocultural, that may be thought of as the ultimate, or remote, causes of injury. Interpersonal conflict may be one of those causes but the skeletal evidence itself is rarely conclusive and must therefore be evaluated in its individual, populational, sociocultural, and physical context. A cautionary tale regarding parry fractures is presented as an illustration.

Bone samples taken at autopsy from seven individuals from western Canada are studied histologically and the bone protein is analysed for stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen. The objective of the study is to determine if pathological conditions result in variations in bone protein stable isotope ratios. Of the seven individuals sampled, three are normal and four are pathological. The latter include post‐paralytic atrophy, healing fracture, active periostitis and healing osteomyelitis. The normal samples are included in order to determine how much variation to expect in different segments of a bone. In the three samples analysed, the variation is ±0.3 for δ13C and ±0.2 for δ15N. Three of the four pathological specimens exceed normal variation. The greatest variation occurs in the bone with osteomyelitis from an individual who had AIDS (the diseased segment was approximately 2‰ greater for δ15N than the two normal segments from the same individual). The higher nitrogen isotope ratio in the bone segment with osteomyelitis is most likely a result of the fact that the collagen was formed from the catabolism of existing proteins in the body. This finding has implications for the interpretation of nitrogen isotope ratios in individuals who may have died from wasting diseases. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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This study examines joint changes in the vertebral skeleton in human remains excavated in 1987 and 1988 at Bronze Age Harappa, an urban center of the Indus Valley civilization. The sample consists of 23 complete skeletons from primary burial context, the partial remains of more than 69 other individuals, and hundreds of skeletal elements from secondary context, totalling 3,084 vertebral joint margins and articular surfaces. Marginal bone proliferation, pitting of articular surfaces, eburnation, and ankylosis were scored macroscopically for vertebral body margins and surfaces and posterior apophyseal facet joints. Marginal lipping is far more prevalent on the vertebral bodies than on the apophyseal facets and surface pitting is also more frequent on vertebral bodies although its expression is relatively low overall. Cervical vertebrae in this sample exhibit the same amount of marginal new bone and much more surface pitting of the vertebral bodies than do either thoracic or lumbar vertebrae; the cervical segment also exhibits the most severe expressions of both types of lesions. In addition, although the frequencies of cervical and lumbar posterior facet involvement are similar, the cervical facets exhibit much more severe lipping as well as the only cases of eburnation and ankylosis. Pitting of the posterior facets is most common in the lumbar segment, but the cervical examples are the only severe cases. It is proposed that the severe joint changes in the cervical spine result from trauma, perhaps accumulated microtrauma from activity stresses. There are no age or sex associated patterns in the frequency of arthritis although this result may be influenced by the small proportions of the total sample for which age and sex could be determined.

The Seafort Burial Site (FcPr100) is a Fur Trade Period cemetery located near the town of Rocky Mountain House, Alberta. The results of recent analysis of skeletons recovered during salvage excavations between 1969 and 1971 suggest that three males in this sample were voyageurs in the employ of the Hudson's Bay Company. Vertebral osteophytosis and osteoarthritis, Schmorl's nodes, muscle origin robusticity and new bone formation at entheses and syndesmoses, and osteoarthritis at the elbow and shoulder joints provide evidence for carrying, lifting, and paddling or rowing. The presence of accessory sacral facets also may be stress-related. In addition, the development of accessory articular facets on the metatarsals and proximal pedal phalanges may indicate activity-induced stress from hyperdorsiflexion of the toes in habitual kneeling, such as when river canoeing.