Citation

Mant M. Int. J. Paleopathol. 2018; 24: 7-18.

Affiliation

Memorial University of Newfoundland, Department of Archaeology, Queen's College, 210 Prince Philip Drive, St. John's NL A1B 3R6, Canada; McMaster University, Department of Anthropology, Chester New Hall, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, ON L8S 4L8, Canada. Electronic address: mmant@mun.ca.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.ijpp.2018.08.003

PMID

30245230

Abstract

Investigating injury recidivism and individuals with multiple injuries is an area of growing interest in bioarchaeology. Differentiating between whether an individual sustained multiple injuries, represented by antemortem healed fractures, in one incident or in multiple incidents over the life course, is a major challenge. This research analyzed the skeletal remains of 721 adults (402 males, 319 females) from five post-medieval cemeteries from London, UK, known to include working class individuals for evidence of skeletal trauma - fractures, myositis ossificans, subluxations/dislocations, blunt force trauma, and sharp force trauma. A total of 164 individuals had more than two fractures; males were significantly more likely to have multiple (2+) fractures than females. An investigation of fracture recidivism incorporating a relative timeline of fracture events was possible because 14 individuals (12 males, two females) were identified as injury recidivists, meaning they had a combination of antemortem healed, antemortem healing, and/or perimortem fractures. This paper examines the distribution and relative timing of these fractures, incorporating contemporary clinical as well as social and historical context, noting that the majority of the fractures were likely to be caused by accidental mechanisms.

Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Language: en

Keywords

Accident; Injury; Multiple fracture; Recidivism; Trauma