A comparative study of the human skeletal material from late first and early second millenium sites in the north-east of England

Abstract

Seven cemetery populations from the Worth-East of England, ranging in date from the Anglian to the Late Medieval periods, were studied. Aspects of ageing, sexing, physical appearance, continuous traits and odontology were considered. Age, sex and stature distributions were found to differ very little between the populations, but groupings based on cranial metric and non-metric traits could be made. A study of dental pathologies showed an increase in caries, abscesses and tooth loss through time. Slight differences in the populations were discussed in relation to their temporal and spatial distributions. Pathological study of most of the sites is unfortunately incomplete at present, and the reader is referred to case studies by Calvin Wells on some of the more interesting cases from two sites (Jarrow and Monkwearmouth). The work should add a physical dimension to the archaeological interpretations of the sites which could otherwise only take into account social and cultural aspects of daily life.