Histology of Ancient Human Bone: Methods and Diagnosis

The examination of excavated human bone finds is mainly the domain of anthropologists and forensic pathologists, the former working with ancient and historical specimens, the latter with modern finds. The methodological and diagnostic approaches to these skeletal finds are the same, regardless of the time of burial. For physical an thropology, bodily human relics are dealt with as historical resources which give clues to ancient population structure, population develop ment, life-style and subsistence. They are thus able to help scientists understand the present state of human populations. The identification of the finds, whether species diagnosis or the evaluation of individual parameters such as sex, age at death, body size and shape, kinship and pathology follows the same procedure used by forensic patholo gists, whose task is the identification of bodily relics in cases of crime, mass disaster and the like. However, there are other disciplines which benefit from excavated bone finds. Anatomy gains insights into the morphological variability of the skeleton in time and place. The implications for modern physi cians and pathologists are at least two-fold: pathological specimens are suitable to unravel the distribution of many diseases and the susceptibility of individuals to pathogens in pre-antibiotic populations. In addition to this epidemiological aspect, exhumed specimens often exhibit advanced states of bone disease which are no longer or only very rarely present in today's industrialized populations because of efficient surgical intervention and pharmacological treatment.

Autorentext
Gisela Grupe ist Professorin für Anthropologie an der LMU München.

Klappentext

The book provides an interdisciplinary approach to theresearch potential ofa histological inspection of excavatedbone finds. Anthropologists, forensicspecialists,palaeontologists and palaeopathologists have to deal withthe unique problems associated with the investigation ofmineralised tissues which have been buried in different soilenvironments for a long time. A summary of the appropriatemethods of investigation of species, determination of age atdeath and the diagnosisof pathology is presented. Althoughthe contributions mainly focus on light microscoy, moreadvanced methods such as histomorphometry andmicroradiography are also discussed in detail.

Inhalt
An Introduction to The Histology of Exhumed Mineralized Tissue.- Light Microscopy of Excavated Human Bone.- Decomposition Phenomena in thin Sections of Excavated Human Bones.- Some Remarks on Palaeohistology from A Comparative Evolutionary Point of View.- Differential Diagnosis of Human and Animal Bone.- Human Bone Remodelling and Aging.- Approaches to The Histological Age Determination of Cremated Human Remains.- Comparative Histological and Microradiography Investigations of Human Bone.- Histomorphometric Methods Applied to Bone.- Palaeohistology of Human Bone Remains: A Critical Evaluation and an Example of its use.- Pathology of Metabolic Bone and Joint Diseases.- Initial Stages of Systemic Bone Disease.- The Uses of Scanning Electron Microscopy in the Interpretation of Some Examples of Trauma in Human Skeletal Remains.