Enthesopathies (lesions of muscular insertions) as indicators of the activities of Neolithic Saharan populations

Abstract

Enthesopathies are bony lesions involving the sites of insertion of muscles or ligaments. Those caused by hyperactivity of the relevant muscles may be distinguished clearly from those of metabolic or inflammatory origin. Observations from sporting and occupational medicine indicate that specific enthesopathies are correlated with different activities. Examination of the enthesopathies present on two groups of well-preserved neolithic skeletons from separate regions of the Sahara with different paleoenvironments show that overall 20% of the skeletons presented lesions. Three different forms of enthesopathy involved the arm, principally the elbow, and may be tentatively correlated with javelin throwing, wood cutting, and archery. Two types of lesion involving the foot were observed in skeletons from a hunter-gatherer population and may be correlated with much walking or running over hard ground. I suggest that the analysis of such lesions on ancient skeletons may, in concert with other archaeological data, throw light on the activities of ancient people.

The effect of endurance exercise on the morphology of muscle attachment sites

“…For example, extremely forceful (high-magnitude) muscle pulls may more strongly influence attachment site morphology than the forces examined in the current study. Many examples of enthesis hypertrophy appear to be associated with the repetitive and powerful muscle pulls created during manual labor or competitive sports (Dutour, 1986;Hill et al, 1995;Kelley and Angel, 1987;Kennedy, 1989b;Priest et al, 1974;Wilczak and Kennedy, 1997). However, as entheses appear to be designed to protect the underlying bone from injury during muscle contraction (see above), forceful muscle pulls may not affect enthesis morphology until they reach pathological levels.…”

The Coimbra Workshop in Musculoskeletal Stress Markers (MSM): an annotated review

“…There are also differences in the interpretations. In the studies by Dutour (1986) and that of Hawkey and Merbs (1995), for example, specific activities were recognized, in contrast to other researches who seemed to prefer to deal with general amounts of stress. Some of these issues were discussed in the symposium titled Activity patterns and Musculoskeletal Stress Markers: an integrative approach to Bioarchaeological questions, co-organized by Jane Peterson and Diane Hawkey in 1997 (abstracts in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology (AJPA), supplement 24 (1997), presented at the 66th Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists in St. Louis, Missouri).…”

“…For Dutour (1986) and Crubézy, (1988) entheseal changes were called enthesopathies, as in the medical literature, and interpreted according to clinical studies from sports and occupational medicine. In Hawkey and Merbs (1995) and Angel and colleagues (1987) studies, such changes were not considered as pathological.…”

“…The analysis of bony changes at sites of insertion of muscle and ligaments, normally called enthesopathies or Musculoskeletal Stress Markers (MSM), has been a major focus in this research (e.g. Dutour, 1986;Crubézy, 1988;Kennedy, 1989;Lai and Lovell, 1992;Robb, 1994;Cunha and Umbelino, 1995;Hawkey and Merbs, 1995;Pálfi and Dutour, 1992;Chapman, 1997;Kennedy, 1998;Steen and Lane, 1998;Eshed et al, 2004;Mariotti et al, 2004Mariotti et al, , 2007Rodrigues-Carvalho, 2004;Molnar, 2006;Assis, 2007;AlvesCardoso, 2008;Villotte, 2009b). Several methodological approaches have been developed for the analysis of human skeletal remains from different contexts and chronologies, all aimed at inferring behavior (Crubézy, 1988;Hawkey and Merbs, 1995;Al Oumaoui et al, 2004;Mariotti el al., 2004;Galtés et al, 2006;Villotte, 2006).…”

Palaopathological investigation of an Árpádian Age series from Kaposvár road 61, Site 2.

“…A fokozott terhelés okozta másodlagos csontszaporulat (enthesopathia) gyakran megfigyelhető az ásatag anyagban, 40-50%-os előfordulási gyakoriságot is publikáltak (Dutour 1986, Galera és Garralda 1990. A Józsa és által vizsgált 10-11. századi temetők (Karos-Eperjesszög és Budapest Timur utca) csontvázainak csaknem negyedénél (23,8%) lehetett kimutatni enthesopathia-kat.…”