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

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 = 8...

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Autores principales: Dittmar, Jenna M., Mitchell, Piers D., Cessford, Craig, Inskip, Sarah A., Robb, John E.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8629122/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33496027
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.24225
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author Dittmar, Jenna M.
Mitchell, Piers D.
Cessford, Craig
Inskip, Sarah A.
Robb, John E.
author_facet Dittmar, Jenna M.
Mitchell, Piers D.
Cessford, Craig
Inskip, Sarah A.
Robb, John E.
author_sort Dittmar, Jenna M.
collection PubMed
description 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.
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spelling pubmed-86291222021-12-06 Medieval injuries: Skeletal trauma as an indicator of past living conditions and hazard risk in Cambridge, England Dittmar, Jenna M. Mitchell, Piers D. Cessford, Craig Inskip, Sarah A. Robb, John E. Am J Phys Anthropol Research Articles 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. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2021-01-25 2021-07 /pmc/articles/PMC8629122/ /pubmed/33496027 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.24225 Text en © 2021 The Authors. American Journal of Physical Anthropology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Articles
Dittmar, Jenna M.
Mitchell, Piers D.
Cessford, Craig
Inskip, Sarah A.
Robb, John E.
Medieval injuries: Skeletal trauma as an indicator of past living conditions and hazard risk in Cambridge, England
title Medieval injuries: Skeletal trauma as an indicator of past living conditions and hazard risk in Cambridge, England
title_full Medieval injuries: Skeletal trauma as an indicator of past living conditions and hazard risk in Cambridge, England
title_fullStr Medieval injuries: Skeletal trauma as an indicator of past living conditions and hazard risk in Cambridge, England
title_full_unstemmed Medieval injuries: Skeletal trauma as an indicator of past living conditions and hazard risk in Cambridge, England
title_short Medieval injuries: Skeletal trauma as an indicator of past living conditions and hazard risk in Cambridge, England
title_sort medieval injuries: skeletal trauma as an indicator of past living conditions and hazard risk in cambridge, england
topic Research Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8629122/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33496027
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.24225
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