Activity-Related and Occupational Conditions

Although diseases such as DISH (see above) have been associated with an occupational pathology based on archaeological context, one of the most direct routes to such conditions are those linked to clinical descriptions of not only individuals engaged in strenuous physical exertion, but moreover the movements associated with the condition and the injuries incurred in making them. Among these are spondylolysis (Figure 24), which is associated with

Figure 23 A blunt force depressed cranial injury with radiating fractures, a diagnostic feature of perimortem cranial injuries, extending from the central depression in a Medieval male from the Late Medieval Battle of Towton. The piece of bone attached to the margin of the depression resulted from comminution (crushing) of the fractured area and was found within the cranial vault of this individual. Photograph courtesy of Dr. Shannon Novak from the collections of the Biological Anthropology Research Centre (BARC), University of Bradford.

Lateral flexion and occurs in gymnasts and cricket fast bowlers today; medial epicondylar avulsion fractures (Figure 25), associated with flexed-elbow throwing motions, as used by baseball pitchers;

Figure 25 A medial epicondylar avulsion fracture with the unattached fragment from Norton Priory, Runcorn, Cheshire. Photograph courtesy of Dr. Alan R. Ogden from the collections of the Biological Anthropology Research Centre (BARC), University of Bradford.

Shoveller’s fractures from retraction of the scapula against resistance (Figure 26); and osteochondritis dissecans from trauma produced by powerful and repetitive joint movements in youth (Figure 27). Palaeopathological studies of such conditions provide A time death for modern clinical conditions, evidence for sexual division of labor, youthful behaviors, evidence for behaviors unrecorded elsewhere in the archaeological record, and complementary evidence for the use of material culture. In this, as in other conditions reviewed here, palaeopathological analysis is the most direct and often the only source of information about the health and well-being of past populations.

See also: Bloarchaeoiogy; Burials: Dietary Sampling Methods; Excavation and Recording Techniques; DNA: Ancient; Health, Healing, and Disease; Osteological Methods; Paleodemography.

Figure 26 A left lateral view of a shoveller's fracture of cervical vertebra 7 in a male from Roman Baldock, Hertfordshire, UK. Photograph courtesy of Jean Brown from the collections of the Biological Anthropology Research Centre (BARC), University of Bradford.

Figure 27 Osteochondritis dissecans of the knee in a Medieval male from Fishergate, York, UK. Photograph of the author, courtesy of York Archaeological Trust.