Porous skeletal lesions (PSL) have been reported in scientific literature since the 19th century, yet their etiology(ies) remains a complex issue under debate. The aim of this study is twofold: evaluate the frequency, co-occurrence, and association of PSL with biological sex and age at death and examine possible relationships between the presence/absence of PSL with the known cause of death (COD). Fifty-six non-adult skeletons from the Coimbra Identified Skeletal Collection (19th to 20th centuries) were evaluated. Lesion presence/absence was recorded macroscopically without previous knowledge of the biographic data. Forty-nine individuals (87.5%) presented at least one type of PSL, and cribra femoralis was the most frequent (n = 39), followed by orbitalia (n = 26), humeralis (n = 15), and cranii (n = 6). Porous skeletal lesions affected males and females equally, and younger individuals presented a significantly higher frequency of cribra femoralis. Even without statistical significance, the cooccurrence of cribra orbitalia, humeralis, and femoralis was common, as described in the "cribrous syndrome" where it is advocated a shared etiology for these lesions, based on macroscopic, microscopic, and radiological features. Individuals with a COD as respiratory infection, particularly pulmonary tuberculosis, exhibited a higher risk of expressing cribra orbitalia. The results of this investigation suggest an influence of age and infectious diseases in the expression of PSL, impacting the bioarchaeological interpretations. There is a need for further research in clinical, autopsy, and identified skeletal collection samples to further understand co-occurrence, comorbidity, and possible frailty related to PSL.

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Access to better health care anticipates that more medical devices can be found alongside skeletal remains. Those employed in oral rehabilitation, with available brands or batch/series, can prove useful in the identification process. A previous study in the Colecção de Esqueletos Identificados Século XXI described macroscopically the dental prostheses. An unusual case of a dental device with chromatic alterations demonstrated to require a more detailed analysis. The individual, a 53-year-old male, exhibited, at both arches, a fixed tooth-supported rehabilitation, with gold colouring classified initially as a gold-palladium alloy. Simultaneously, a green pigmentation deposit was observable in bone and prosthesis. This investigation aimed to verify the elemental composition of the dental prosthesis alloy. Elemental analysis was performed by X-ray fluorescence in two regions (labial surface of the prosthetic crown and the root surface of the lower right lateral incisor). Both the spectra and the qualitative results found higher levels of copper and aluminium, followed by nickel, iron, zinc, and manganese. No gold or palladium was detected. The most probable assumption is that a copper-aluminium alloy was used, as its elemental concentration corresponds to those measured in similar devices. Dental prostheses of copper-aluminium alloys have been made popular since the 1980s, particularly in the USA, Japan, and Eastern Europe. Apart from the biographical information, it was also known that the individual’s place of birth was an Eastern European country, which highlighted the usefulness of this type of information when dealing with missing people cases.