User:Patton.gillian/sandbox

Anything that is underlined is from the original article, and is not mine.

Medieval Bioarchaeology
Medieval bioarchaeology is the study of human remains recovered from medieval archaeological sites. Bioarchaeology aims to understand populations through the analysis of human skeletal remains and this application of bioarchaeology specifically aims to understand medieval populations. There is an interest in the Medieval Period when it comes to bioarchaeology, because of how differently people lived back then as opposed to now, in regards to not only their everyday life, but during time of war and famine as well. The biology and behavior of those that lived in the Medieval Period can be analyzed by understanding their health and lifestyle choices.

Mechanical Stress and Activity Indicators
Because things had to be done manually, such as agriculture and carrying activities, physical stress effected both men and women during this time. Degenerative disorders were more prominent than disease. Physical stress is easier to see on the bones, compared to disease on the bone, because it takes a significant amount of time for evidence to appear on the bone, and without medical treatment, these people would die before the disease would show itself on the bone.

Injury and Workload
As far as vertebral trauma goes, it was very common in most adults, especially males, according to H. Nathan's study done on 400 vertebral columns in hopes of their osteophytes providing accurate results. This study was on the development according to age, race, and sex with considerations as to their etiology and significance. This study showed that 100% of the 400 individuals developed either spondylosis deformans or osteochondrosis by the time they were 40 years old, which was most likely due to historic gender-specific labor distribution.

What I Have So Far
There is a heavy emphasis on dental wear and diet, and not much on the mechanical stress and activity indicators. I'd like to focus on adding more to that, as well as expanding on the medieval time itself in relation to Bioarchaeology and why diet and dental wear in the medieval time is different from other times. I think that I would also like to get into adult vs child medieval skeletons.