Sticks and Stones

Some of the bones we found seem to show evidence of injuries or arthritis. The excavation team needs to know which ones. We need to examine the bones and try to determine whether they show evidence of injury or arthritis.

During life, the skeleton has the ability to respond to stress. Because of this, evidence of accidents or disease may be recorded in the skeleton in a way that can be interpreted by physical anthropologists hundreds or even thousands of years later. For example, when you break a bone, it is repaired by the body's bone building cells. The healed area is never exactly the same as it was before the break, however, so there are clues that show the bone has a healed break. In the earlier stages of healing, there is a lot of bone buildup at the break because the body tries to repair it quickly. This is especially true in ancient skeletons because bones were not set properly or put in casts. Over time, the extra bone is broken down and the area becomes smoother and more normal, but the bone may still show a slight bend or bump.

Not all diseases leave evidence on the skeleton, but one type of disease that is often seen in ancient skeletons is called arthritis. Arthritis causes painful joints because the normally smooth joint surface is damaged. For example, a knee joint may develop arthritis from heavy use, from an injury or just from old age. Think about the many joints in your body – in your fingers, shoulder, hip, ankle, even in your back! Anywhere you can bend, you have a joint. What does arthritis look like? Look for sharp edges on the joint or small spikes of bone around the edges. There may even be small holes on the damaged joint.

Bone analysis

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