Bioarchaeology: Skeletal Health and

Well-being
Dr. Christopher J. Knsel,
Associate Professor,
Department of Archaeology,
University of Exeter,
Exeter, Devon, UK
E-mail: c.j.knusel@exeter.ac.uk

Regimented Burial Positions

(reflected in funerary monuments as well)

Gloucester Cathedral

The Temple, London

Austin Friars, Hull

Magistrates Court

Wickhampton, Norfolk

Medieval Burial Positions

St. Giles, Brough,

North Yorkshire

Sandal Castle,

Near Wakefield,

West Yorkshire

St. Mary &

St. Bega,

St. Bees,

Cumbria

St. Mary &

St. Bega

St. Bees,

Cumbria

The Burial of a Priest with Effigy

Religiosity and Symbolism: The Crosslegged Priest, Barton-on-Humber,

Humberside, U.K.

The Medieval Priest

Later Medieval
Burial Ritual:
Preparation of the
Soul and the
Corpse

The Osteological Paradox*

the presence of an inactive lesion [i.e. healed] indicates

survival of a disease process earlier in life and thus may signify

an individual whose frailty is low compared with those who died

at earlier ages (p. 352).

*Wood et al. (1992). The Osteological Paradox: problems of inferring health from skeletal

samples. Current Anthropology 33(4): 343-370.

Countering the Osteological

Paradox

Attained Adult Stature and Body
Proportions (Growth and Development)

Fluctuating Asymmetry and Congenital
Anomalies

Life Course Research

Archaeological Contextual Integration

Status Distinction based on Propitious

Locations of Burial

Cloistered Ecclesiastics

Cloistered Ecclesiastics

Lay

Benefactors

Priests

Monastic Orders: Gilbertine Canons

Habit: a black cassock, with a white hood and scapular, so that when viewed from
God's perspective they would appear as a white cross on a black background.

The Fishergate Gilbertine Monastery at York

Location of Redfern s Glass Factory Site, York

The Gilbertine Monastic Cemetery at 46-54 Fishergate, York

I

II

III

The Vertebral Column

vertebra= singular

vertebrae= plural

Vertebral
Degeneration

Vertebral Degeneration by Burial Location

Statistical Analysis

Principal Components Analysis

Kolmogorov-Smirnov

Test

The Pattern of Degenerative Joint Disease: Intervertebral vs. Apophyseal Joints

St. Roch,
Patron Saint
of Plague

L Epidmie: La Peste Noire

Le Site de l hotel des Monnaies, Londres

Rattus rattus

Le Quatrime

Chevalier de

l Apocalypse

The Black Death:

Bubonic Plague

La Danse Macabre at Basel

Transi Tomb of Guillaume de Harcigny

(circa 1310-1393)

The Fourth Horseman

of the Apocalypse

The Black Death (Plague), Summer 1348

The Abbey of St. Mary Graces

Royal Mint Site, East
Smithfield, London

The Catastrophic Mortality Profile

The Royal Mint Site, East Smithfield, London

The Parish Church at 

St. Helen s-on-the-Walls, York

The Mortality Profile of the Royal Mint Site versus that from St. Helen s-on- the- Walls

Catastrophic
Profile: The
Plains Bison
Kill

Comparison of the Royal Mint and Beckett Street 1849 AD

mortality profiles
Royal Mint
Beckett Street

30
Percentages

25
20
15
10
5
0
0-4.99

514.99

1524.99

2534.99

Age ranges

3544.99

45+

Catastrophic
Profile: The
Plains Bison
Kill

Figure 7.5 Mortality profile for St. Helen-on-the-Walls - total, males and
females
Total - n= 636
Total
Males - n= 145
Males
250
Females - n=170
Females
209

No. of individuals

200
150
100

128
99

91

73
55

54
50

17 21

19

53

56

35-44.99

45+

34

42

0
0-4.99

5-14.99

15-24.99

25-34.99

Age ranges

Attritional versus Catastrophic Mortality Profiles

Attritional Expected Profile

Catastrophic Expected Profile

Revised Catastrophic Mortality Profile

Source: Jakobsen, Anna-Lise

Ladegaard 1985/6. A Cripple from
the Late Middle Ages, Ossa 5: 17-24. 

The Fishergate Gilbertine Monastery at York

Treatment
Fishergate 10266
Sk251, 45+ yearold male

Leeds Workhouse Female Inmates,

Leeds Mercury Newspaper
Caption indicates that these women are able-bodied

Sandhurst versus Marine Society Boys Growth 

(14-year-olds)

Floud, R., Wachter, K. & Gregory, A. 1990. Height, Health, and History: Nutritional Status in the United
Kingdom, 1750-1980. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Definition of a Mass Grave:

1) the presence of a body mass or masses within

a grave cut or cuts

2) the presence of disorder in the orientation of
the bodies indicating an apparent disregard
for the manner of deposition that is often
outside the bounds of normative practice

3) Skeletal remains in anatomical connection
(especially labile connections)

4) bodies that are in contact with one another

5) the presence of traumatic injuries

6) a common pattern of trait or traits related to
cause and manner of death

References: Mant 1987, Haglund 2002, Schmittt 2002, Skinner

et al. 2002, Duday 2006

Towton Stature

Mean= 172.1 cm (5 71/2 )

s.d.= 5.8

Medieval Mean= 170 cm (55)
Towton Stature
190
185
180
175
170

Stature

165
160
155
150
30
22
40
40
22
40
40
40
50
22
22
adult
22
30
30
40
40
17.5
22
22
30
22
30
50
22
30
22
22
30
22
22
adult
adult
22
adult
19
adult

145
1 6 8 9 10 11 12 13 16 17 18 19 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 30 32 3338/3437 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50
001006008009010011012013016017018019021022023024025026027028030032033
038/034
03703904004104204304404504604704849050

Social Inequality: 

Stature and Body Proportions over 2, 000 years

Ph.D. Research of Dr. Marianne Schweich, completed 2005

A Normal Pre-Jennerian
Mortality Profile

Source:Turpeinen, O. (1979). Fertility and mortality in Finland since 1750. Population Studies 33(1): 101-114.

The Towton Mortality Profile

Bone Biomechanics and

Accommodation/Disability

The Medieval Celebrant

The Legend of St. Giles

The Priest of St. Giles,

Brough, North Yorkshire

Cross-sectional 
Properties 
of BSG 1423

Major Bioarchaeological Contribution

The Agricultural Revolution of the Neolithic (7,
500 cal B.C. in the Near East), like the Industrial
Revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries did not
improve health, but rather exposed people to new
diseases due to crowding and pollution.
Researchers had previously considered that people
adopted farming because it was easier than and
meant progress from hunting and gathering. The
Neolithic seems to have produced an increased
population, rather than responding to population
increase through innovation.

Acute versus Chronic Disease

Acute- A disease or condition, the onset
of which is sudden, and that can lead
rapidly to death, oftentimes before the
bone has occasion to react.



Chronic- A disease or condition that is
slowly acting over a considerable period
of time. These are the types that most
often affect the skeleton.

Indicators of Stress & Diseases of Poverty

Leprosy

Enamel Hypoplastic Defects

Trauma &

Infection

Tuberculosis

Cribra Orbitalia

Diseases & Disorders of High Status

Gout

Hyperostotic Disease(DISH)

Medial Epicondylar Avulsion Fracture

Congenital
Asymmetry

Medieval St. Helen s-on-the-Walls,

York

Cranial Asymmetry

Medieval Brough St. Giles,

North Yorkshire

Early Medieval Eccles, Kent

Erb s Palsy, Roman

Kempston, Bedfordshire

Pott s Disease: Tuberculous Kyphosis

Modern

Sufferer

Egyptian

Figurine

Czech National Museum, Prague

Tuberculous Vertebral Kyphosis

Swedish Royal Child

(Medieval Period)

Medieval Wakefield, West Yorkshire

Tuberculosis of the 

Acetabulo-Femoral
Joint

St. Oswald s Priory, Gloucester,

12th-16th century

The Earliest Case of Tuberculosis in Europe from Arene

Candide, Liguria, Italy

Formicola, V., Milanesi, Q., & Scarsini, C. (1987). Evidence of spinal tuberculosis at the beginning of the
Fourth Millennium BC from Arene Candide (Liguri, Italy). American Journal of Physical Anthropology
72: 1-6.

Osseous Manifestations of Facies

Leprosa (Rhinomaxillary Change)

Facies Leprosa

Maxillary Effects

Resorption of Alvelolar

Process

Loss of Anterior Teeth

Facial Nodules at

Nerve Endings

Stone Carving from Burton

Lazars, Leicestershire

Distributional Comparisons

Venereal Syphilis

Tuberculosis

Leprosy

Vertebral Sunburst Lesions

Wolverhampton 39, 19th century A.D.

Ortner, D. J., Ponce, P., Ogden, A. and Buckberry, J. (2010). Multicentric osteosarcoma associated with DISH, in a 19th
century burial from England. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology. doi:10.1002/oa.1196

Humeral Modifications: Tennis Players

Evonne Goolagong-Cawley

Calvin Wells Collection

(Modified after Jones et al. 1977)

Le Jouer de
Baseball Gaucher

(modifi d aprs King et al. 1969)

Dominant et Dominant

Non-Dominant et Non-Dominant

The Effects of Baseball Pitching

142 g, 9

(22.9 cm)

Cricket ball: 5.5 and 5.75

ounces (155.9 and 163.0 g)
and measure between 8
13/16 and 9 in (224 and 229
mm)

The Rubber-Armed David Wells

Modified from: King, J. W., Brelsford, H. J., & Tullos, H. S., 1969.

Analysis of the pitching arm of the professional baseball pitcher.

Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research 67: 116-23.

Humeral Response to Activity

in Professional Tennis Players

Jones, H., Priest, J.D., Hayes, W.C.,
Tichenor, C.C., and Nagel, D.A. (1977).
Humeral hypertrophy in response to exercise.
Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery 59-A(2):
204-208.

Youthful Tennis Players

Ability: Cross-sectional Analysis of Humeri

80% slice

(shoulder)

20% slice

(elbow)

L Evidence de la Lateralit dans 

FCS No. 7 the Mary Rose

FCS No. 7 the Mary Rose

Baldock
1203

80%
65 %
50%
35%
20%
% Bilateral Distribution

La Bataille de Towton, 29 mars A.D. 1461

Le champ de bataille

Le Roi d Angleterre

Henri VI

(Maison de Lancaster)

Le Roi d Angleterre

La spulture multiple

Edouard IV (Maison d York)

(Clich de Tim Sutherland)

La Droute et Massacre Towton

Le Profil de Mortalit Towton

Crmonial et Symbolique - ou Dguis?

Prter serment d un Halberdier, Guardia Svizzera Pontificia,

le Vaticane

Towton 16 en contexte archologique

(Dessin par Caroline Needham)

(Clich par Tim Sutherland)

Un Archer avec
l Arc/ A Longbow
Archer,
c. 1461 A.D.

Grace Royal Armouries, Leeds

L Archer de Towton

Royal Armouries, Leeds

cubitus valgus de Towton 41

La Violence et la Guerre: Rponses Physiologiques

Towton 16

L Analyse des Sections Transverses des Humri

Tranche 80%(paule)

Tranche 20% (coude)

Le Site de Fishergate, un Monastre Gilbertin York

Resultats: J (torsion), la moyenne

de tous les deux cots

575
525

475

T
FG BI
FG Comp

425
375
325
275
1

Slice
(1 = 20%, 2 = 35%, 3 = 50%, 4 = 65%, 5 = 80%)

Resultats: J (torsion), les cots

droits et gauches

575
525
TR
TL
FG BI R
FG BI L
FG Comp R
FG Comp L

475
425
375
325
275
1

Slice
(1 = 20%, 2 = 35%, 3 = 50%, 4 = 65%, 5 = 80%)

Battle of Poitiers 1356

Blood Red Roses, 1er

et 2me Editions

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