Vertebral pathologies in two early modern period (16th–19th century) populations from Croatia

Bibliographic Data

ID8317289
AuthorsMario Novak (0000-0002-4567-8742, Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, corresponding author), Mario Šlaus (0000-0002-4941-2212, Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts)
Year2011
Volume145
Issue2
Pages270-281
Publication date2011-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Journal of Physical Anthropology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0002-9483 • E-ISSN: 1096-8644
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1002/ajpa.21491
PMID21365616
OpenAlexW2022853206
LanguageEN
Citations received23
References cited38

In order to test to what degree Schmorl's nodes (SN), osteophytosis of the vertebral bodies (VO), and osteoarthritis of the articular facets (OA) are useful indicators of activity‐related stress, an analysis of their frequencies and severity of expression was conducted in two early Modern period skeletal samples from Croatia—Koprivno and Sisak. Historic and contemporary ethnographic sources suggest that living conditions were more demanding in Koprivno, and that a sexual division of labor existed in both populations. A total of 2,552 vertebral bodies (990 from Koprivno and 1,562 from Sisak) and 5,186 articular facets (2,135 from Koprivno and 3,051 from Sisak) were analyzed. Koprivno exhibits significantly higher total frequencies of SN, VO, and OA than Sisak, and the total frequencies of SN and OA in both series are significantly higher in males. When, however, the series were analyzed by age and sex categories, the same trend was noted only in SN. The frequencies and severity of VO and OA could not be interpreted in keeping with the historic and contemporary ethnographic sources and were additionally, unlike SN, found to be strongly correlated with increased age. This study, therefore, suggests that while SN are useful indicators of different lifestyles and/or different activity patterns between various archaeological populations, VO and OA are—possibly because of their more varied etiologies—less useful markers of activity‐related stress. Am J Phys Anthropol, 2011. © 2011 Wiley‐Liss, Inc

Aesthetics · Archaeology · Art · Ethnography · Etiology · Period (music) · Sociology · Demography · Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies · History · Internal Medicine · Medicine · Musculoskeletal Disorders and Rehabilitation