This study will answer the question: can we discover social differentiation in cemeteries using joint diseases such as osteoarthritis (OA) after correlating social status with burial positioning?...Show moreThis study will answer the question: can we discover social differentiation in cemeteries using joint diseases such as osteoarthritis (OA) after correlating social status with burial positioning? In order to successfully carry out this research, the relationship between status and burial positioning had to be confirmed. Individuals of different statuses often differ in their burial treatment. To discover if joint diseases could be used as a proxy for finding social differentiation, OA is linked to status. Lower classes could have had more mechanical stress in their joints because of hard physical labour, resulting in a higher OA prevalence within this group. This theory could now be tested on a cemetery, for which St Peter’s Church Cemetery in Barton-upon-Humber is used. A big cemetery with almost a thousand years of occupation, from 950 AD to 1855 AD, which makes it a perfect case study for a study like this. Five different cemetery phases (grouped A to E) are analysed individually. This study looked at sex and age distribution, and correlated this to burial positioning. Two main methods are used. First the burials inside the church are compared with burials outside the church. Secondly, different fields outside the church are compared to each other. The comparisons are also statistically tested and furthermore each grave is marked on a burial plan. This resulted in excellent overviews of the OA prevalence in the cemetery. Some patterning is discovered, suggesting that the burial locations of different social classes are not distributed at random. In using these methods, the main question of the thesis could be answered. Osteoarthritis can be used to discover social differentiation on St Peter’s Church Cemetery. Therefore, the theory of using joint diseases to discover social differentiation in cemeteries after correlating social status with burial positioning, turned out to be reliable. However, it must be used in combination with other disciplines and resources to strengthen its reliability.Show less
This research will discuss the different types of fractures that occur in a sample of the Dutch Middenbeemster collection from the Post-medieval graveyard and determine their prevalence rate. The...Show moreThis research will discuss the different types of fractures that occur in a sample of the Dutch Middenbeemster collection from the Post-medieval graveyard and determine their prevalence rate. The fracture types may possibly provide information regarding the lifestyle of the individuals. The characteristics of antemortem skeletal trauma will also be reviewed. Signs of healing indicate the trauma occurred at least a week before death and is called antemortem trauma. The various types of fractures and their cause(s), whether direct or indirect trauma injury, will be explained further. What the prevalence rate and the fracture patterns can say about the lifestyle of the Middenbeemster population will be addressed as well in order to provide some more insight into the lives and activities of the inhabitants of Middenbeemster that were interred in the cemetery of the ‘Keyserkerk’ in primarily the mid-nineteenth century.Show less
In this thesis the difference in fracture pattern between women and men are investigated. The material originates from 10 early Anglo-Saxon settlements situated in the United Kingdom (Alton, Butler...Show moreIn this thesis the difference in fracture pattern between women and men are investigated. The material originates from 10 early Anglo-Saxon settlements situated in the United Kingdom (Alton, Butler’s Field, Kingsworthy, Chichester, Great Chesterford, Castledyke South, Blacknall Field, Mill Hill, Norton and Buckland). This research relies on the analysis of the osteologist reports of these cemeteries. The early Anglo-Saxon period is a transitional phase from the Late Roman to the Anglo-Saxon period and dates from AD 450-650. We do not know much about the social and economic change that happend in this period. We see the abandonment of urban settlements from the Roman period to adaption of small rural settlements in the early Anglo-Saxon. This research is interesting because this research has not been done before and will hopefully give us new insights in the early Anglo-Saxon period. The results from this thesis show that there is a significant difference between fractures of men and women in the cranium, clavicle and fibula. However, as most of the fractures did not contain a proper description of the fractures, an explanation could not be given to the clavicular and fibular fractures. The cranium could be analysed. Eighty-four per cent of the cranial fractures could be appointed to interpersonal violence. These cranial fractures occurred significantly more often in males than in females.Show less
