The diagnosis and context of a facial deformity from an Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Spofforth, North Yorkshire (original) (raw)
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Disability in a medieval village community: A unique case of facial dysmorphism
International Journal of Paleopathology, 2021
To identify the pathology causing the severe facial dysmorphia of a medieval individual from the site of Rigny (Indre-et-Loire, France) and to evaluate its functional repercussions on the subject's hearing and social life. Materials One individual from Rigny for the osteological study, 69 individuals from the region for the Ct-Scan study and 48 individuals from the site for the isotopic analysis. Methods Macroscopic analysis was performed using standard osteological methods. Consequences of pathology on hearing were assessed by CT-scan. Dietary behaviour was analysed by stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis of bone collagen. Results The individual is a woman who was over 50 years of age at the time of her death with a severe form of Treacher-Collins syndrome that resulted in deafness. No osteological signs of maltreatment were observed and there is no evidence that this individual's diet was different from that of the rest of the community. Conclusions All information testifies to the full integration of this individual into the village population. Significance This study is the first archaeological description of Treacher Collins syndrome. It shows the ability of the paleopathological approach to help identify the attitudes of societies for which written sources are most often lacking. Limitations In the absence of palaeogenomic analysis it is not possible to identify the origin of this case. Suggestions for further research Increase the paleopathological semiology by CT-scan in order to specify the consequences of pathologies and integrate isotopic analyses to enrich discussion about perceptions of disease.
2020
Until recently, individuals with physical impairment have been overlooked within the field of archaeology due to the controversy surrounding the topics of disability and care in the past. The current research adds to the growing body of archaeological disability studies with an exploration of physical impairment and the possibility of disability-related care in Anglo-Saxon England (5th-11th centuries AD), utilising palaeopathological, funerary, and documentary analyses. Palaeopathological analysis of 86 individuals with physical impairment from 19 Anglo-Saxon cemetery populations (nine early, five middle, and five later) was performed, and the possibility of disability-related care was explored for several individuals. The mortuary treatment data (e.g. grave orientation, body position, grave good inclusion) was gathered for the entire burial population at each site (N=3,646), and the funerary treatment of the individuals with and without physical impairment was compared statisticall...
A Comparative Study of Vertebral Pathologies and Anomalies in Two Medieval British Populations
2018
A holistic approach to palaeopathological studies using historical documentation and clinical, archaeological and epidemiological literature can provide important information as to the health, lifestyles, socioeconomic and occupational status of individuals from the past. Applying this approach, the study provides an overview and comparative analysis of the spinal health of two contemporaneous British skeletal samples from the medieval period; St Owen’s Cemetery, an urban based population from Gloucester (n=68) and Poulton a rural, agrarian community from Cheshire (n=70). Sex and age at death were estimated using a variety of osteological techniques and descriptive statistics and Chi-square statistical tests were computed to identify and assess inter- and intra-population differences. Although some significant differences were observed, both skeletal samples had similar types and anatomical locations of the pathological conditions observed. St Owen’s Cemetery exhibits higher frequen...
Burn Ground, Hampnett, Gloucestershire was excavated by W. F. Grimes in the early 1940’s. It is a multi-period site with a Neolithic long barrow, six Bronze Age round barrows and an Anglo-Saxon cemetery containing four cremations and ten inhumations. This report discusses the results of a reassessment of the Anglo-Saxon inhumations and presents a new analysis of the cemetery organisation. It also includes comparisons with the findings from two contemporary sites, Lechlade, Gloucestershire and Berinsfield, Oxfordshire. The assemblage comprises five females aged 17-45 years, three males aged 35-59 years and one sub-adult aged 9.5 years (unsexed). There were only two infants/ young children represented and no adolescents, which together with the small amount of total burials, raises the possibility that the full extent of the cemetery has not been found or they were buried elsewhere. The stature range for the females is 155-172cm (mean 163cm) and for the males 159-187cm (mean 173cm) which falls within the normal range for the period. High rates of caries and calculus were noted in the dentitions, and unusually for the period there is no evidence of linear enamel hypoplasia and little evidence of trauma. There is tentative evidence for familial relationships based on non-metric traits and osteological evidence of an inherited genetic disease, indicating that Burn Ground may have been a small family cemetery. The funerary practices identified at Burn Ground concur with the general trends seen at other Anglo-Saxon cemeteries, except for two graves containing females buried with spearheads. Female weapon burials are rare in the Anglo-Saxon period which makes these two graves significant. This report also puts forward an argument for a social and/ or chronological divide between the burials on the north and the south sides of the Bronze Age barrows, based on cemetery organisation, artefact and burial distribution.
Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine, 2012
Wessex Archaeology excavated parts of an Anglo-Saxon cemetery on the southwest margins of the village of Aldbourne in northeast Wiltshire. The presence of a cemetery had been highlighted by the discovery of six skeletons of unknown date in 1960. The excavations revealed all or parts of 26 inhumation graves in two neighbouring areas. Most graves lay on a south-west–north-east alignment and the majority of burials had been made supine and extended, but one adult male had been laid prone and one grave held the remains of two juveniles laid facing one another. The demographic profile suggests this represents the remains of a 'domestic' population. One of the earliest cases of leprosy was recorded in one adult male and evidence for tuberculosis was seen in the remains of an elderly female. One of the children in the double grave had suffered peri-mortem sharp-weapon trauma to the skull. Grave goods were relatively sparse (eight graves) and limited in form (predominantly knives) indicating a 7th-early 8th century date for the cemetery. Slight variations in grave orientation and distribution, together with frequency of grave goods, suggest a possible temporal or possibly socially hierarchical variation in the use of this apparently Final Phase cemetery.
Forensic Facial Approximation of Achondroplastic Dwarf from Medieval Cemetery in Central Europe
Achondroplasia (ACH, achondroplastic dwarfism) represents the most common form of skeletal dysplasia, occurring in c. 4 out of every 100,000 births. This study presents a computer-based facial approximation of the skull of a male individual suffering from ACH, who died at 30-45 years of age and was buried in Łekno, Poland between the 9th and 11th centuries AD. For the approximation procedure, soft tissue data from CT scans and ultrasonic measurements performed on living individuals were used. Additionally, the anatomical deformation technique was applied to arrive at the most reliable reconstruction of the dwarf’s appearance. To our knowledge, this is the first recreation of a person with achondroplasia, and one of the few showing a head of an individual suffering from a hereditary disease, with dimensions and shape differing from the population average values.Highlights-Forensic facial approximation of an achondroplastic dwarf from 9th–11th century AD has been performed as the firs...