Medieval injuries: Skeletal trauma as an indicator of past living conditions and hazard risk in Cambridge, England

Abstract

Objective: To explore how medieval living conditions, occupation, and an individual's role within society impacted their risk of skeletal trauma. Materials: The skeletal remains of 314 individuals from medieval Cambridge that were buried in the parish cemetery of All Saints by the Castle (n = 84), the Augustinian friary (n = 75), and the cemetery of the Hospital of St John the Evangelist (n = 155) were analyzed. Methods: Macroscopic examination and plain radiographs were used to classify fracture type. The causative mechanisms and forces applied to a bone were inferred based on fracture morphology. Results: The skeletal trauma observed represents accidental injuries, likely sustained through occupational or everyday activities, and violence. The highest prevalence rate was observed on the individuals buried at All Saints by the Castle (44%, n = 37/ 84), and the lowest was seen at the Hospital of St John (27%, n = 42/155). Fractures were more prevalent in males (40%, n = 57/143) than females (26%, n = 25/95).Conclusions: Skeletal trauma was highest in All Saints parish burial ground, indicating that the poor, whether working urban or rurally, had the highest risk of injury. The pattern and types of fractures observed suggests that males experienced more severe traumatic events than females. However, females that were routinely involved in manual labor were also at increased risk of injury.Significance: This article enhances our understanding of how traumatic injuries differed by age, sex, and burial locations in the medieval period. Further research: Additional comparative studies in different geographical regions are needed to determine how representative these findings are.

Fancy shoes and painful feet: Hallux valgus and fracture risk in medieval Cambridge, England

“…Of those, 34 % (n = 55/159) individuals had one or more fractures. Nearly all of the fractures observed in this assemblage occurred antemortem; only one individual (PSN 531) had peri-mortem fractures (see Table 6 ; or Dittmar et al, 2021 for further details ). More males (44 %, n = 38/86) had fractures than did females (32 %, n = 15/47).…”

“…However, several individuals within these assemblages had fractures in locations that are commonly associated with interpersonal violence (i.e. cranial vault, mandible, ribs) (see Dittmar et al, 2021 ).…”

“… a PSN 531 also had perimortem bilateral comminuted femoral fractures in addition to perimortem fractures of T1 and C6 that indicate that he was involved in a severe, likely lethal, accident (see Dittmar et al, 2021 ). These fractures were not included in this table as this event is unlikely to be related to a fall.…”

Riding for a fall: Bone fractures among mounted archers from the Hungarian Conquest period (10th century CE)

“…Most clavicle fractures in the RD group were oblique fractures at midshaft (Figure 5), with a visible fracture line extending diagonally across the longitudinal axis (Dittmar et al, 2021;Lovell, 2008;Waldron, 2009), while no clavicle fracture was observed in the LIS group.…”

“…This difference was statistically significant only for the clavicle between the Hungarian group with riding deposit (RD) and the comparison group from Lisbon (LIS), in particular (Table 2 and Figure 3). Most clavicle fractures in the RD group were oblique fractures at midshaft (Figure 5), with a visible fracture line extending diagonally across the longitudinal axis (Dittmar et al, 2021; Lovell, 2008; Waldron, 2009), while no clavicle fracture was observed in the LIS group.…”