Abstract:An elderly male skeleton from a site in Chichester, UK, was found with a widespread periosteal reaction, principally affecting the axial skeleton and the pelvis. Radiography showed the presence of sclerosing infiltrates, mainly involving the lumbar vertebrae and pelvis. The differential diagnosis is discussed, reaching the conclusion that hypertrophic osteo-arthopathy (HOA) is the only reasonable alternative condition likely to produce such a widespread periosteal reaction as found here. HOA does not produce s… Show more
“…At the same time, these elements were also pitted with lesions, making them appear moth-eaten. This condition was familiar to me from other skeletal remains I had encountered over the years and come to understand as metastatic carcinoma—prostate cancer, in particular (Ghabili et al, 2016; Klaus, 2018; Rando and Waldron, 2018). Figure 2.Burial 8, (a) photograph of right pelvic bone (ilium) showing formative, spiculated bone and pitting on the internal (visceral) surface (photography by Anthony Faulkner); (b) radiograph of right pelvic bone showing internal, osteolytic destruction (imaging courtesy of Oneida Imaging and Valerie Haley).…”
Section: The Many and The Onementioning
confidence: 99%
“…At the same time, these elements were also pitted with lesions, making them appear moth-eaten. This condition was familiar to me from other skeletal remains I had encountered over the years and come to understand as metastatic carcinoma-prostate cancer, in particular (Ghabili et al, 2016;Klaus, 2018;Rando and Waldron, 2018).…”
Archaeological bodies and their afflictions have multiplied in recent years, along with the specialists who study them. The result is a cascade of data, much of it difficult to reconcile. I argue that variable enactments of disease, rather than reflecting an epistemological disconnect or difference in scale, engender ontological gaps. To pursue these malleable matters, I trace the proliferation of “cancer” from the Spring Street Presbyterian Church burial vaults (1820–1850) in Manhattan. To explore the struggles involved in making many things one, I consider emergent multiplicities of this “disease” within specialists’ laboratories, archival records, and the writing process. Rather than force these different cancers to cohere, or make one “win” based on disciplinary domain (science/humanities) or hierarchy of substance (bone/paper), I rely on Stengers’s (2018) ecology of partial connects. The outcome is not a rubric of knowledge gained, but a sketchbook of lessons learned with bodies multiple along the way.
“…At the same time, these elements were also pitted with lesions, making them appear moth-eaten. This condition was familiar to me from other skeletal remains I had encountered over the years and come to understand as metastatic carcinoma—prostate cancer, in particular (Ghabili et al, 2016; Klaus, 2018; Rando and Waldron, 2018). Figure 2.Burial 8, (a) photograph of right pelvic bone (ilium) showing formative, spiculated bone and pitting on the internal (visceral) surface (photography by Anthony Faulkner); (b) radiograph of right pelvic bone showing internal, osteolytic destruction (imaging courtesy of Oneida Imaging and Valerie Haley).…”
Section: The Many and The Onementioning
confidence: 99%
“…At the same time, these elements were also pitted with lesions, making them appear moth-eaten. This condition was familiar to me from other skeletal remains I had encountered over the years and come to understand as metastatic carcinoma-prostate cancer, in particular (Ghabili et al, 2016;Klaus, 2018;Rando and Waldron, 2018).…”
Archaeological bodies and their afflictions have multiplied in recent years, along with the specialists who study them. The result is a cascade of data, much of it difficult to reconcile. I argue that variable enactments of disease, rather than reflecting an epistemological disconnect or difference in scale, engender ontological gaps. To pursue these malleable matters, I trace the proliferation of “cancer” from the Spring Street Presbyterian Church burial vaults (1820–1850) in Manhattan. To explore the struggles involved in making many things one, I consider emergent multiplicities of this “disease” within specialists’ laboratories, archival records, and the writing process. Rather than force these different cancers to cohere, or make one “win” based on disciplinary domain (science/humanities) or hierarchy of substance (bone/paper), I rely on Stengers’s (2018) ecology of partial connects. The outcome is not a rubric of knowledge gained, but a sketchbook of lessons learned with bodies multiple along the way.
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