Section 4:
In this Section you will learn to
Identify the Type of Bone Injury and Disease in Skeletal Analysis
How are bone injury and disease different in
contemporary skeletal remains vs. prehistoric / historic skeletal remains?The key difference regarding pathology relates to the time period.
Forensic Anthropology Skeletal Biology
- Time period is contemporary
- Time period is prehistoric / historic
- Certain patterns of bone injury from modern day weapons, machinery, vehicles, etc. will be present on contemporary bones and absent on archaeological bone specimens.
- Certain patterns of wear, or injury or disease from long ago will be present on archaeological bone specimens and not on contemporary skeletal remains due to changes in culture, technology, and advances in modern medicine
- Bones not dead a long time may have cartilage on them and not as much wear.
- Bones dead a long time will show natural environmental wear.
The key difference in pathology (study of patterns of disease or injury) is the time period. Thus, in order to identify the type of bone injury you must first be able to identify the time period for the bone.
