Scurvy, anaemia, and rickets under the microscope - Light-microscopy supported investigation of malnutrition in subadult skeletal remains from the medieval central mountain village of Winnefeld (Lower Saxony, Germany)
ANTHROPOLOGISCHER ANZEIGER(2023)
Abstract
In the hilly region of Solling in Central Germany, a large number of abandoned medieval settlements is known. In an excavation project of a church ruin and cemetery of the abandoned village Winnefeld from the 12th to 14th century CE, 165 individuals were excavated and anthropologically examined, including a light microscopic investigation. Among these individuals, 105 subadults were identified, from the age-at-death of pre-natal (stillborn) infants, up to juveniles, with the large majority of infants up to two years of age-at-death. Among the subadults, scurvy was frequently diagnosed. In more than 30% of the individuals, evidence or at least hints towards the diagnosis of scurvy were observed. Anaemia and rickets were less frequent (about 6% and 7%), however, still common. The light microscopic investigation, conducted as series standard, proved itself as a useful additional method in distinguishing vestiges of different illnesses, especially in nonextreme, questionable cases. Sometimes, however, it even resulted in a change of diagnosis of formerly supposed "clear" cases.
MoreTranslated text
Key words
malnutrition,medieval central mountain village,anaemia,lower saxony,microscope,light-microscopy
AI Read Science
Must-Reading Tree
Example
![](https://originalfileserver.aminer.cn/sys/aminer/pubs/mrt_preview.jpeg)
Generate MRT to find the research sequence of this paper
Chat Paper
Summary is being generated by the instructions you defined