Can you determine socioeconomic status or importance of a person just by studying the bones from a certain period without any other artifacts?

Hi! Thanks for taking the time. I don't know much about osteoarchaeology - do you start with a background in medicine and shift to archaeology, or start with archaeology and pick up the anatomy? Is there a preference?

I recently visited the Catacombs in Paris, France, where millions of bones are stored. There were a lot of people that died of different diseases, including the Bubonic Plague.

While walking through the tunnels, my wife asked if we could get a disease from some of the bone dust, I laughed it off and said no. Now, I'm wondering if I was right? Am I?

Thanks so much for doing this! When it comes to cognitive and physical development of children, I've often heard (and subscribe to) the claim by learning and cognitive scientists that there's more difference between children of the same gender than differences between any two children of different genders. In other words, the things that differentiate a girl from a boy are virtually meaningless for educational and developmental purposes.

So, when dealing with the bones of children, I'm curious if there's a tipping point of factors that lead you to conclude the child was female versus male or if there's one key thing you look for that tips you off as to sex (gender)?

Can you share with us what on a bone indicates a disease? (if that's too broad you can choose an example!). Sounds like a fascinating job you have

Under what circumstances do you encounter these bones?

I know this sounds weird, but the idea of osteoarchaeology reminds me of the whole half-joke of after how long grave robbery becomes archaeology. So from a more practical perspective, are you looking at bones recovered from archaeological digs, or do you also end up studying more modern skeletons, and if so how does that come about?

(My apologies, I don't think I'm phrasing this well, but I hope you can get the gist.)

Thanks so much for doing this AMA, as someone with degrees in history and biology I always find these things fascinating!

Are you or any of your colleagues fans of the TV show "Bones" based on the Kathy Reichs books? If so, is the show's "TV science" pure malarky? or do you find some nuggets of accuracy?

What are the laws governing exhumation/examination of remains like in Britain? Here in the U.S., for example, Native American groups have specific legal rights with regard to remains and grave goods/cultural items found on public land. Is there something similar with regard to inhabitants of particular areas in Britain, or is there a certain point past where living descendants can claim rights to remains?

I studied this in college and found it fascinating!

My question— I recently came across an article that describes Casimir Pulaski as possibly “a woman or intersex — but this seems to just be based on the fact that he had a smaller pelvis and delicate jaw. I was taught that this is just a natural human variation, some dudes are slightly built, and some women are burlier. What do you think, is this really evidence he was intersex or female, or is it possible he was just a more delicate-featured man?

When very old human fragments like Lucy (and earlier) are found you’re able to present how a complete human would look like. Do you get everything right? What have prople gotten wrong in the past?

How have you found advances in Osteoarchaeology have affected earlier views on life, and especially disease in ancient history?

During my undergrad I found that the vast majority of Classics was being turned upside down by the advances in science based archaeology, and it was really a revolution in our understanding of ancient history.

What is the worst part about your job?

Thank you for your work and for speaking with us today! How do osteoarchaeologists handle skeletal remains that have passed through multiple owners/settings other than the initial setting in which they were buried or disposed of? (Would-be venerators, souvenir takers, museum settings before the 20th century, etc.) Does this muddy the waters for identifying injuries occurring in the person's own lifetime/immediate postmortem state, or is it generally possible to tell if remains have been badly stored or bashed around after the fact in some curious person's possession, versus in the course of living and dying?

Thank you very much for taking the time to do this AMA.

As someone who has worked for years in a cathedral restoration and management agency, I regularly get questions from visitors about medieval remains and burials, but always feel very much out of my comfort zone when answering since osteoarchaeology is far outside my field of expertise. If you were to select one or two introductory books for a non-archaeologist to pick up, which ones would you go for?

Also, outside of stratification and archaeological context, do we have reliable ways to date skeletons besides the use of C14?

How do you ensure that the human remains you are studying are treated with respect, and how do you deal with the rights of descendants? At least in the US, there have been a lot of issues involving the return and/or repatriation of the remains of indigenous persons, such as the Kennewick Man case (granted, the same indigenous rights issues probably don't apply to most UK digs).

Is a skeletons bone density more dependent on lifestyle or genetics?

I don’t have a question. I just think you have a very cool job!

Thanks for doing this AMA, very interesting! I just graduated from the University of Edinburgh with my MSc in Human Osteoarchaeology, but I’m from the States and couldn’t get a work visa to extend my stay.

My question is, how did you continue to work with skeletal remains after Uni? Did you continue to your PhD and then into academia from there? Unfortunately, the job market, especially in the US, is quite difficult, but I am still hoping to continue with osteoarchaeology, and I usually hear very varied stories in career paths.

Lastly, do you have a favorite bone?

I excavated skeletons in Cyprus as part of my degree while I was at Reading Uni. It was fascinating, first time I’d ever handled human remains.

We had problems with poachers coming at night and digging through half excavated burials, hoping to find artefacts buried with the bodies. Have you experienced any grave robbing mid way through excavations?

Thank you very much for doing this AMA, the whole subject sounds absolutely fascinating.

I'm interested in hearing about your own experiences in the field. What kind of skeletons have you worked with? Were did they come from and what were you able to identify?

Hello Dr Lewis! I don't really have a question, I just wanted to say thank you for your Youtube video. I showed it to my wife who's a med student and enthusiastic archaeology-dilettante (we'll be digging this summer again) absolutely loved it. Please make more. The only downside is I'm having a tough time at museums now to get her to move on past any exhibit that has bones in it!

Just to conform to format, I guess my question is: Could you make more?

I sit, a lot. I have sat a majority of my waking hours over the last decade. Its unhealthy for my body in a myriad of ways, I know.

But in several thousand years, will anyone be able to tell? What would my skeleton say to a historian that said "I sat too much"?

Is it true that a 14 year old living in the 13th century (assuming that he is healthy) is more physical capable than a 14 year old in our time.?

(Sorry if this is not your field, I think that you can know theses things from studying bones)

When I was doing my undergrad, one of the things that came up when covering conversion era Anglo-Saxons was that there isn't much of an archaeological record for neo-nates. There were various theories that were floated in the class, ranging from unexpectedly low infant mortality rates to "they didn't consider infants to be people until they were named, and therefore dead babies were not buried in the same way older children and adults would be".

It was mentioned though that there was perhaps something in the chemistry of infants that meant they hadn't survived in the same soil condition as more mature skeletons. Is there any credibility to this at all?

I'm studying anthropology at UNC-Chapel Hill at the moment, and one question I've always had was, given that males and females physically develop at different rates, in what ways is sex factored into age estimations? Are there certain "standard" equations (i.e. estimations) to use when sex cannot be meaningfully determined?

I'd imagine certain age markers, like the level of cranial suture obliteration, might be less affected by hormones, and sex generally, than others, like growth plates in long bones, but I'm not sure.

Which signs bubonic plague leave on bones?

How are the interests in your subspecialty different than anthropology?

You mention illnesses; what's the limit in finding indicators for those? I figure bone cancer would be easy, but would you be able to find indicators for just random illnesses like anemia or malaria?

Expanding on that: What are the most remarkable/unexpected kind of discoveries that can be made from bones? Can you derive soft tissue damage from bones?

Ah... third one, because I find this really interesting: What are the most impressive/renowned discoveries that have been made in your field and why exactly are they considered so good/genius?

How many skeletal remains have a kyphosis and what are their average age of death?

Not so much a question, just excited to see you on Reddit. I read a lot of your work while researching for my dissertation.

Hoping to go on to do Osteoarchaeology at masters. 🙂

Are you familiar with the Giv’at ha Mivtar man? I am teaching a class at church soon about the crucifixion of Jesus, and as far as I can find the Mivtar man is the only known body of a crucified man. But I haven't found much for recent studies of him and would love to know more.

I have a couple of questions about using osteoarchaeology (and osteotypes in particular) to estimate disease prevalence in the past. I hadn't actually read many papers on osteoarachaeology in particualr until I was preparing for a lecture on the history of syphilis, and the debates about the pre-Columbian vs Columbian hypothesis (with these two papers in general: https://academic.oup.com/cid/article/40/10/1454/308400 and https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22101689 ). The idea of an osteotype is very satisfying to a physician -- a sign that's very specific for the disease in question.

So my questions are -- is the osteotype a valid way to determine disease patterns? Can you use it estimate disease prevalence from burial sites, or is the incidence of unique findings way too low to make any meaningful conclusions? Are there any favorite papers of yours on this?

​

And a final question (sorry, this is a really cool subject!) -- what do you make of the osteoarchaeological claims of a lower prevalence of cancer in the past? Is this something that could truly be accurately determined or validated?

​

Thanks so much for doing this!

Last year a mass child grave was found in Peru and was believed to be the result of a ritual sacrifice. How did this discovery impact the osteoarchaeology word (especially your field since you’ve been studying pubescent/prepubescent skeletons) and have there been any more conclusions reached or theories presented since it’s discovery?

Hello, thank you for doing this. I was surprised to see this AMA is in AskHistorians, actually; I assumed I was in AskAnthropology (the other sub I participate a lot in on Reddit) when I saw the thread title haha. The archaeological sciences was one of my undergrad majors, and I have a different kind of question, one I hope some others may find useful and interesting.

Which texts would you recommend that pertain to osteoarchaelogy or bioarchaeology? Not necessarily textbooks (though that’s okay too, really), but really informative texts that can shed light on your fields of study. Any texts pertaining to the sort of research you are doing specifically? Thank you.

Is there a Strontium map of the world? I've read that you can estimate where someone grew up by the amount of Strontium in their bones. This suggests to me that there should be some sort of associated map.

I'm curious about what are the new or developing areas of osteoarchaeology. I know in history, there has been a lot of revision since the 70s and 80s. How has the field be influenced by changes in social norms and paradigms?

How closely, if at all, do you work with forensic anthropologists?

Hi Mary, and thank you for taking the time to do this.

What's the most interesting thing you've seen and why?

Really cool to see this! I focused quite a lot on forensic anthropology and osteology in my undergraduate studies, so was really excited to read this AMA. This question might not necessarily be right up your alley, but was always something that I had a lot of trouble comprehending. Collections rarely turn up full, complete human skeletons - what is recovered can vary, and sometimes it's only a few bones. My major project that I worked on was a collection of six individuals of various ages and sexes. However, we only had a few bones from each - no more than 10 non-tarsal/carpal from each individual. What are the major factors that can influence the recovery - or lack thereof - from certain sites? Why do some sites turn up near-complete skeletons, but our site only yielded a few? My first inclination is always greater environmental factors - animals, weather movement - but what chemical processes in the soil or surroundings can play a part, and to what degree?

Hello Mary!

I'm so glad that you are here to discuss this topic with the public! I have a B.A. in Anth and I loved my forensics and archaeology classes. I hope you inspire many people here!

My question is kind of specific: when I was taking my forensic anth class, I got to study a skull from a person who had syphilis. Obviously, the effect to the supraorbital region, lacrimal bones, and nasal cavity was very apparent. I never stopped to ask why in class. Could you explain that? Is it all the nasal cavity's fault?

Thank you

I have fibromyalgia and a few other ‘invisible illnesses/disabilities’. People often have trouble with illnesses they can’t see physically from the outside. I wanted to ask would fibro be visible on bones? Visible from the ‘inside’ as it were. Also are there any other invisible illnesses that are visible on bones?

As someone who worked as a shovel bum in Jordan and Israel... I remember the thousands of bone fragments we dug up. (I Remember having to hide finding human remains until we completed removing it in situ)

How accurate is the quick touch test when sorting human from animal bones?

I’ve always wondered about the poor person in a lab who had to do the final analysis.

What do skeletons tell you about the culture, religion, etc.? And can you tell what the biggest challenges of the time were, like if there was a famine or if they'd gone through a lot of fighting?

You mentioned that you study english medieval remains. I'm curious if you can tell anything specific about thier nutrition in that period.

I'm a recent anthropology grad with a focus on food studies and prehistory. Does your study of human skeletal remains lead you to believe that the overall health of early humans improved in patterns that coincided with the eating of meat, or the cooking of roots and tubers and other plants? In a biocultural approach, we can definitely see that health declined at the advent of farming, but more archaically, Wrangham's cooking hypothesis was a large part of my capstone, despite the field being somewhat undecided between cooked plant matter or animal products being more beneficial. I myself eat lots of animal products, but in conversations with friends I defend Wrangham's hypothesis that actually animal products are not exactly necessary for our anatomy. Is this overzealous of me? I do realize there are two issues at play here - the evolutionary leap in brain size, and the state of human/hominid health, and I'm trying to figure out what I really support most, as far as contemporary diets go. I'm mostly asking about the state of the health of skeletons surrounding the advent of fire and the period during which hominid dental patterns started to show signs of an omnivorous diet, not just the difference between strictly evolutionary benefits in a comparative analysis of macronutrients.

Also, if you don't study prehistoric skeletons, can you give us any information about the impact of diet on overall health during the periods that you do study?

There is the often repeated claim that modern humans are much taller than medieval humans. Is there truth in that? If so, is it due to diet or has there been a selection for taller mates over time? Are the remains of the nobility or wealthy merchants generally taller due to better diet?

I heard that you can tell if someone was a medieval archer by the warping of their "arm bones" how accurate is this?

Are there any noticeable changes in bone chemical content from certain periods? I would be really interested to see if certain elements like mercury or lead spiked during the industrial revolution compared to the centuries before

How long do you have to wait until it becomes socially acceptable to dig someone up? For example, I completely understand digging someone up from 500 years ago. But what about someone buried 100 years ago?

Can you determine the health of the deceased in regards to their diet and nutrition? Can this be combined with other factors to determine what and how they ate? I'm talking per-agricultural.

A bit morbid, but have you examined any bones from eaten remains? And if so, how bad does a war/disaster/famine need to be before you start seeing tool-marks on the bones?

Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us!

I've seen shows like Unsolved Mysteries where they claim a person was strangled to death when they only have skeletal remains. Is it possible to make this conclusion without any soft tissue to go by?

More specific to your expertise, what sort of diseases leave the most obvious markers in a skeleton? How do you separate out which disease/illness caused the marker -- would there not be a large amount of overlap?

When looking at skeletal remains, how do you identify basic things like diet, age, lifestyle, etc? What clues are you looking for?

What role, if any, does “race” still play in your work? I notice racial language is still commonly used in this field and in genetics and I’m wondering why skin colour is still used as a system of categorisation - hasn’t it been debunked? Thanks

Modern soldiers tend to develop a host of skeletal stress issues like premature arthritis and such. Can you speak in general terms about about how that impacted our ancient and medieval predecessors? Could you tell, for example, whether a 13th century knight had torn an ACL and subsequently had to work around it since surgical repair wasn’t available?

Can you describe a current blind spot in illness detection capabilities that make certain types of diseases directly unidentifiable?

What are the steps between digging up bones and analysis, which actions do you take?

Is there any simple way for a laymen to determine found bones belong to a human rather than some other mammal?

Have you ever had any chance to examine or read about related researches on the remains of victims of the Black Death? If so what was the most probable cause?

Have you been to Sedlec Ossuary (or one of the less famous bone churches)? It seems like it'd be up your alley.

That said, were ossuaries commonplace or were they considered weird even during the time they were being built? These days building anything out of bone is going to get you some weird looks and awkward questions.

I've read that methods of identifying sex in bones are not as reliable as was once thought. Is that the case?

How does damage to a bone indicate whether it was before or after death?

Is there a way you can tell just by looking at the damage?

What do you think that future human osteoarcheologists will be looking for when they go through the remains of today's humans?

For a short time I worked at the University of Tennessee, in maintenance, and had to interact with Dr. Bass. I visited the body farm regularly and saw the important work up close. More recently I assisted in a body recovery for work(police). I was amazed that upon seeing the bleached skull and a few other bones the anthropologist knew immediately that it was a mid 30s white male. (He was right). How closely related is your field of study to that of forensic anthropology?

How accurate is forensic facial reconstruction?

Can you tell gender from bones? What about race? Just genuinely interested!

Hi! I’m an archaeology student and so glad you’re doing this AMA. I work in an ancient DNA lab in the US but have worked with skeletal remains as well. Any advice for continuing in the field of osteoarchaeology?

What do you find yourself always having to remember/remind yourself?

I ask as a former American arch grad student (got my masters and didn't enter the field) and I remember being interesting seeing how sub-fields interacted (Cultural, Arch, and Bio... no one seems to focus on language much), and the Bio focused folk would downplay the irrelevant aspects of other sub-fields, and vice versa.

What ancient skeletons have you studied?

What is your opinion of the bones of the woman buried with viking apparel that was missing the kind of damage you normally see on warrior bones?

This may be off topic but are you able to tell the difference between the bones of someone who labored all their lives vs someone who led a more lax, labor in unintensive life?

Have you ever found, or are you aware of having been found, bones that are similar to, but larger than, those of a typical human?

^Have^you^found^giants?

With the recent discoveries of smaller, Indonesian, island-dwelling humanoids, can we deduce anything about their intellectual abilities through the brain size/body size correlation? For example, would they be capable of spoken language?

So related but a little off topic.

Watched a video the other day about how the oldest skeletons to be discovered in the Americas have come from the Central-American region, rather than the northern stretches by Beringia as would be expected based on the current hypothesis of the land-bridge crossing.

Do you think this means that the earliest settles could have come from possible Pacific Islanders/Asian peoples sailing across the sea and/or island hopping or is there some other reason that these are the oldest evidence of humans we are seeing?

Thank you by the way! :)

how do i become an archeologist

How do you determine the diet from studying the bones?

What is the oldest bone specimen that you’ve identified?

What has been your favorite archaeological discovery so far? Why do you find crematoriums more frequently than you find ossuaries?

As an undergraduate biological anthropology student in the US, I’ve heard that you can lick bones to determine if they are human. Is this actually used as a method in the field? I feel like it would heavily contribute to DNA contamination and possible transmission of disease/pathogens? Additionally, do you find that in your field that there are more career opportunities in the UK rather than the US? I am very interested in becoming a bioarchaeologist or something with osteology and I’ve been seeing a lot more UK anthropology. Are there any field schools you recommend for bioarch? I was looking at a Polish one (Drawsko) and a Canadian one (UNB). Is there a reason you prefer more modern remains over prehistoric? My university dept seems more interested in prehistory, and while I find those remains interesting (I mean how could you not, they’re ancient hominids!), I am most interested in remains that would most likely have better preservation and honestly when I read about remains like the Richard III find and Iron Coffin mummy finds I am so much more intrigued.

My history teacher once said that there were burn Mark's on skeletons of cavemen era and that it was discovered that they held there food with there hands above a fire. Is that true?

This is so cool, thank you for doing this!

This might sound weird but I’m genuinely curious- is there a designated (legal) period of time you need to wait to dig up bones? To put it more crudely (and I mean no offense AT ALL, I just don’t really know how else to phrase it) at what point legally does digging up human remains go from grave robbing and/or stealing to archeology? Is it in length of time? Intent? Permits?

How do people reconstruct faces from just a skull. To me it just seems like they throw clay on a skull any which way that they want to and make up any face that they want to. How do they know how big the nose is, or how full the cheeks were, etc?

I was talking with someone from India and they were saying that they bury people but without any embalming and usually in a simple casket. As a result he was saying that after a few years, most of the bones have decomposed. And yet people like yourself often study bones that have been around for many years. What sort of factors affect the way that bones decompose?

Is it possible to see if a person survived a certain disease? For example with the black death: did it leave certain marks on individual's bodies that identify that they survived the disease? Im curious because I'm remembering research that showed people who's ancestors survived the Bubonic plague are more resistant to HIV/AIDs.

Realistically speaking, how likely is it that a postgrad in your field would be able to find a tenured position? How many of your PhD friends are floating around as postgrads teaching undergrads at half the pay, and how long does it usually take to break out of that? Once you've made tenure, how hard is it to keep the position, and how do you balance teaching with your own research?

What if you run out of human remains to dig up? Aside from traditional burial and criminal's cover up burial, there arent many reasons for humans being buried. Also, when is it moraly ok far archiologists to collect bodies from tombs? I can guess that you believe that dead's rights are forfeit, since the civilizations in which they were buried are long gone. Would that be the same for ours? Sorry if theres a lot of ignorance to "dig up" here.

Have you noticed any recent trends and changes in the bones of now compared to those of the past? I've heard that playing instruments like the violin can show on your jaw is this true? Also do writers and artists have deformations on their hands from their craft?

How “old” does a grave have to be before exavating and digging up their graves? I have always wondered what the “dividing line” between acceptable and unacceptable grave digging. If I went to a cemetery from the 1800s and started digging, everyone would be horrified at what I was doing, yet no one has any real problem with digging up ancient Egyptian or middle age graves.

What is the difference between a Neandrathol and ourselves skeletally?

Ankylosing Spondylitis! Tertiary Syphilis! I just want to say that paleopathology is cool and so are you.

If you had to pick one bone in the human skeleton, that is most helpful to you in understanding how that person lived etc, which would it be?

If a set of remains needs to be studied but still has some 'meaty bits' on it, what is the process for removing them without damaging the bones?

So I thought god put skeletons on earth as a test, because skeletons aren't really real except for halloween

How do you think Alexandria the great died?

If you watch Bones or shows of this genre what glaring mistakes have you seen when they are talking about a skeleton?

What's ur favorite bones

Cool, this is what my mom used to do! I’m curious about how your field has evolved. My mom described herself as a biological anthropologist and archaeologist, specializing in osteopathologies—would people think she’s a fossil for using those terms these days? (She’s been retired going on ten years.) How have modern medical technologies influenced the way you work?

What kinds of ethical questions do you run into working with Medieval English collections? Do you ever have issues with access or handling requirements?

Can you tell a person's sex based on the skeleton?

Why are there so few men in your profession?

Thanks for taking the time out to answer questions. Your proffesion is fascinating! In your opinion, what is the most mysterious and unsolved osteoarchaeology find to the best of your knowledge? I read somewhere that some Viking raiders may have filed lines into their teeth, but we do not know why.

Hi! Former Palaepathology student of Durham here! I think you knew some of my lecturers (Tina Jakob, Anwen Caffel and Becky Gowland). So I did my dissertation on the impact of settlement environment on human health in the Romano-British period. The results I got were mixed and quite hard to determine overall patterns from. I divided my settlements into three types based on size: Rural, Minor Urban and Major Urban. Sometimes there was a nice clear pattern in which Major Urban sites had the highest average prevalence of a condition, followed by Minor Urban, then Rural or in the reverse order. However, sometimes the minor urban sites tended to have the highest or lowest prevalence. Given that one would assume these moderate settlements to have conditions between major urban and rural settlements, why do you think this might have occurred?

I'm an American archaeologist who has excavated a few burials here in the states so thought I'd keep my question light. Every shovel bum loves a good story from the trenches, so what has been the most perplexing burial you have encountered in your career and how did you finally piece together it's narrative?

What can you tell about injuries and general level of pain ancient peoples lived with ?

Can you tell if a person suffered from stress or a mental illness based on their bones? And if so how is that possible?