The final plague outbreak in Scotland 1644-1649: Historical, archaeological, and genetic evidence.

This paper has several aims: to determine if Yersinia pestis was the causative agent in the last Scottish plague outbreak in the mid-17th century; map the geographic spread of the epidemic and isolate potential contributing factors to its spread and severity; and examine funerary behaviours in the context of a serious plague epidemic in early modern Scotland. Results confirm the presence of Y. pestis in individuals associated with a mid-17th century plague pit in Aberdeen.

Low Genetic Impact of the Roman Occupation of Britain in Rural Communities.

The Roman period saw the empire expand across Europe and the Mediterranean, including much of what is today Great Britain. While there is written evidence of high mobility into and out of Britain for administrators, traders, and the military, the impact of imperialism on local, rural population structure, kinship, and mobility is invisible in the textual record. The extent of genetic change that occurred in Britain during the Roman military occupation remains underexplored.

Health inequality in medieval Cambridge, 1200-1500 CE.

Health inequality is not only a major problem today; it left its mark upon past societies too. For much of the past, health inequality has been poorly studied, mostly because bioarchaeologists have concentrated upon single sites rather than a broader social landscape. This article compares 476 adults in multiple locations of medieval Cambridge (UK).

Investigating the association between intestinal parasite infection and cribra orbitalia in the medieval population of Cambridge, UK.

Objective: Cribra orbitalia is believed to be a skeletal indicator of chronic anaemia, scurvy, rickets or related metabolic diseases. It has been suggested that it may be used as a proxy indicator for intestinal parasite infection, as parasites often cause anaemia today. Our aim is to investigate this association in the medieval population of Cambridge, UK.

Tuberculosis before and after the Black Death (1346-1353 CE) in the Hospital of St John the Evangelist in Cambridge, England.

This research explores how the prevalence of tuberculosis (TB) in a medieval hospital was affected by the demographic and social changes that following the Black Death (1346-1353 CE), the initial years of the Second Plague Pandemic. To do this, skeletal remains of individuals buried at the Hospital of St John the Evangelist in Cambridge, England, that could be dated to living before (n = 77) or after (n = 55) the Black Death were assessed for evidence of TB (indicated by destructive lesions of the spine, ribs, large joints, and other recognised criteria). Overall, the odds of females having skeletal lesions caused by TB were over four times higher than males.

Caring for the injured: Exploring the immediate and long-term consequences of injury in medieval Cambridge, England.

Objective: To combine paleopathological and biomechanical analysis to reconstruct the impact that a severe skeletal injury had on an individual's ability to function and participate in medieval society.

Materials: Three medieval individuals from Cambridge, England with ante-mortem fractures to the lower limb were analyzed.

Methods: Plain X-rays were used to determine the degree of malunion, rotation and overlap of each fracture.

Employing radiography (X-rays) to localize lesions in human skeletal remains from past populations to allow accurate biopsy, using examples of cancer metastases.

Clinical research into biomolecules from infectious diseases and cancers has advanced rapidly in recent years, with two key areas being DNA analysis and proteomics. If we wish to understand important diseases and their associated biomolecules in past populations, techniques are required that will allow accurate biopsy of lesions in excavated human skeletal remains. While locating lesions visible on the surface of a bone is simple, many lesions such as cancer metastases are located in the medulla of bones, unseen on visual inspection.

Intestinal parasite infection in the Augustinian friars and general population of medieval Cambridge, UK.

Objective: To investigate how lifestyle may have impacted the risk of contracting intestinal parasites in medieval England . Regular clergy (such as those living in monasteries) and the lay population form interesting groups for comparison as diet and lifestyle varied significantly. Monasteries were built with latrine blocks and hand washing facilities, unlike houses of the poor.

Ancient herpes simplex 1 genomes reveal recent viral structure in Eurasia.

Human herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1), a life-long infection spread by oral contact, infects a majority of adults globally. Phylogeographic clustering of sampled diversity into European, pan-Eurasian, and African groups has suggested the virus codiverged with human migrations out of Africa, although a much younger origin has also been proposed. We present three full ancient European HSV-1 genomes and one partial genome, dating from the 3rd to 17th century CE, sequenced to up to 9.

An invasive Haemophilus influenzae serotype b infection in an Anglo-Saxon plague victim.

Background: The human pathogen Haemophilus influenzae was the main cause of bacterial meningitis in children and a major cause of worldwide infant mortality before the introduction of a vaccine in the 1980s. Although the occurrence of serotype b (Hib), the most virulent type of H. influenzae, has since decreased, reports of infections with other serotypes and non-typeable strains are on the rise.

Assessing the relative benefits of imaging with plain radiographs and microCT scanning to diagnose cancer in past populations.

Objective: To determine the degree to which plain radiographs (x-rays) and microCT scans can improve accuracy in the diagnosis of cancer in human remains from past populations.

Materials: The skeletal remains of 143 individuals from medieval Cambridgeshire, dating from 6th-16th century CE.

Methods: Visual inspection of the skeletons for lesions compatible with malignancy, coupled with plain radiographs and microCT scans of the pelvis, femora and vertebra.

The greatest health problem of the Middle Ages? Estimating the burden of disease in medieval England.

Objective: To identify the major health problems of the Middle Ages. Bubonic plague is often considered the greatest health disaster in medieval history, but this has never been systematically investigated.

Materials: We triangulate upon the problem using (i) modern WHO data on disease in the modern developing world, (ii) historical evidence for England such as post-medieval Bills of Mortality, and (iii) prevalences derived from original and published palaeopathological studies.

Fancy shoes and painful feet: Hallux valgus and fracture risk in medieval Cambridge, England.

Objective: Hallux valgus, the lateral deviation of the great toe, can result in poor balance, impaired mobility and is an independent risk factor for falls. This research aims to compare the prevalence of hallux valgus in subpopulations of medieval Cambridge, England, and to examine the relationship between hallux valgus and fractures to examine the impact of impaired mobility and poor balance caused by this condition.

Materials: 177 adult individuals from four cemeteries located in Cambridge, England.

Gout and 'Podagra' in medieval Cambridge, England.

Objective: To estimate the prevalence rate of gout and to explore the social factors that contributed to its development in the various sub-populations in medieval Cambridge.

Materials: 177 adult individuals from four medieval cemeteries located in and around Cambridge, UK.

Methods: Lesions were assessed macroscopically and radiographically.

The prevalence of cancer in Britain before industrialization.

Background: To plan for cancer services in the future, the long view of cancer prevalence is essential. It might be suspected that cancer prevalence before tobacco and industrial revolution pollutants was quite different to today.

Methods: To quantify the degree to which cancer prevalence may be changing over time, the authors analyzed 143 skeletons from 6 cemeteries from the Cambridge area (6th-16th centuries).

Medieval injuries: Skeletal trauma as an indicator of past living conditions and hazard risk in Cambridge, England.

Objective: To explore how medieval living conditions, occupation, and an individual's role within society impacted their risk of skeletal trauma.

Materials: The skeletal remains of 314 individuals from medieval Cambridge that were buried in the parish cemetery of All Saints by the Castle (n = 84), the Augustinian friary (n = 75), and the cemetery of the Hospital of St John the Evangelist (n = 155) were analyzed.

Methods: Macroscopic examination and plain radiographs were used to classify fracture type.

A probable case of multiple myeloma from Bronze Age China.

Objective: Paleopathological evidence of cancer from past populations is rare, especially outside of Europe and North Africa. This study expands upon the current temporal and spatial distribution of cancer by presenting a probable case of multiple myeloma from Bronze Age China.

Material: The human skeletal remains of an adult male from the Qijia culture horizon (1750-1400 BCE) of the Bronze Age cemetery of Mogou (), located in Gansu Province, Northwest China.

Skeletal evidence for violent trauma from the bronze age Qijia culture (2,300-1,500 BCE), Gansu Province, China.

This research explores how social and environmental factors may have contributed to conflict during the early Bronze Age in Northwest China by analyzing violent trauma on human skeletal remains from a cemetery of the Qijia culture (2300-1500 BCE). The Qijia culture existed during a period of dramatic social, technological, and environmental change, though minimal research has been conducted on how these factors may have contributed to violence within the area of the Qijia and other contemporaneous material cultures. An osteological assessment was conducted on 361 individuals (n = 241 adults, n = 120 non-adults) that were excavated from the Mogou site, Lintan County, Gansu, China.

Osteobiography: The History of the Body as Real Bottom-Line History.

What is osteobiography good for? The last generation of archaeologists fought to overcome the traditional assumption that archaeology is merely ancillary to history, a substitute to be used when written sources are defective; it is now widely acknowledged that material histories and textual histories tell equally valid and complementary stories about the past. Yet the traditional assumption hangs on implicitly in biography: osteobiography is used to fill the gaps in the textual record rather than as a primary source in its own right. In this article we compare the textual biographies and material biographies of two thirteenth-century townsfolk from medieval England-Robert Curteis, attested in legal records, and "Feature 958," excavated archaeologically and studied osteobiographically.

The afterlife of Laurence Sterne (1713-1768): Body snatching, dissection and the role of Cambridge anatomist Charles Collignon.

This paper aims to highlight the practice of body snatching from graves in the 1700s for the purpose of providing corpses for anatomical dissection, and for stocking anatomy museums. To do this, we examine the exhumation and dissection of the famous eighteenth-century novelist Laurence Sterne and explore the involvement of Charles Collignon, Professor of Anatomy at the University of Cambridge. We also show that osteological and cut-mark analysis of a skull purported to be that of Sterne, currently housed in the Duckworth Collection at Cambridge, provides the key to solving the mystery surrounding why Sterne was resurrected.

From cradle to grave via the dissection room: the role of foetal and infant bodies in anatomical education from the late 1700s to early 1900s.

The preponderance of men in the narrative of anatomical education during the 1800s has skewed the historical perception of medical cadavers in favour of adult men, and stifled the conversation about the less portrayed individuals, especially children. Although underrepresented in both the historical literature and skeletal remains from archaeological contexts dated to the 1800s, these sources nevertheless illustrate that foetal and infant cadavers were a prized source of knowledge. In the late 1700s and 1800s foetal and infant cadavers were acquired by anatomists following body snatching from graveyards, from the child's death in a charitable hospital, death from infectious disease in large poor families, or following infanticide by desperate unwed mothers.