SHORT COURSE REVEALS SECRETS OF THE DEAD

Delegates from around the world recently gathered at the Department of Archaeological Sciences for the 5th Biennial Short Course in Human Skeletal Palaeopathology.

Left to right: Delegate Jennie Hawcroft from Leeds University, Course organiser Professor Don Ortner from the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC, and delegate Caroline Needham, from Manchester University, examine a skull for signes fo disease.

Participants were taught the basics of identifying a range of diseases on skeletons including leprosy, TB, dental disease and metabolic diseases such as anaemia and scurvy.

They had the opportunity to examine skeletons from Roman, Anglo-Saxon and Medieval Britain who, in life, suffered from a variety of conditions from everyday ailments to those which were life threatening.

Kate Domett, a PhD student from the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand said: "It has definitely been worth coming all this way and I have really enjoyed the course. They have fantastic skeletal specimens at Bradford."

Left: Delegate Sarah Tatham from Leicester University examines a bone.

The course was co-ordinated by Dr Christopher Knusel from the University's Department of Archaeological Sciences, Professor Don Ortner from the Smithsonian Institute, Washington D.C. and Dr Charlotte Roberts from Durham University.

Dr Knusel said: "The course provided a broad overview of disease in the past. It provided the basics of ossified tissue biology as applied to the identification, diagnosis, and prevalence of skeletal disease and its evolutionary interaction with human populations from the prehistoric past to the present.

"All categories of skeletal disease were discussed, and participants gained a valuable opportunity to discuss the major issues in health and disease in past human populations.

"The course was of considerable clinical importance because recently trained medical doctors haven't seen this sort of evidence. Without the use of antibiotics, you see the progression of the disease to its natural conclusion."

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