Abstract
Disease, illness, and trauma may mark the human skeleton thereby allowing skeletal analysts to answer more complex questions about a past populations lifeways and health status. This study focuses upon the documentation of the skeletal manifestation of disease and trauma on a sample from the Key West Cemetery in South Florida. Specifically, I macroscopically evaluated the skeletal remains for osseous changes that have been linked to metabolic disorders, infections, joint disease, and developmental conditions. Intrinsic to the analysis of skeletal pathology was the sorting of the fragmentary and commingled remains and estimation of sex, age, and stature. The skeletal material of this sample compromised of 5,606 human bone fragments and yielded a minimum of 9 adults including three males, four females, and two individuals of indeterminate sex. The sample yielded high frequencies of periosteal lesions, both porous lesions of the cranium and osteoarthritis (OA). Statistical analysis revealed no relationships between the pathologies and sex of the individuals. However, significant relationships between bone location and pathologies were found between periosteal lesions (X2 = 351.584, df = 12, p = .001), porotic hyperostosis (X2 = 356.691, df = 24, p = .001), cribra orbitalia (X2 = 46.660, df = 12, p = .001), LEH (X2 = 118.428, df = 12, p = .001), and osteoarthritis (X2 = 494.343, df = 12, p = .001). Significant statistical relationships between pathologies and individuals were found between periosteal lesions (X2 = 30.919, df = 8 , p = .001), porotic hyperostosis (X2 = 150.876, df = 16, p = .001), antemortem fractures (X2 = 38.058, df = 8, p = .001), and osteoarthritis (X2 = 274.181 , df = 8 , p = .000).
Overall, this sample comprised individuals of a middle to older age range that suffered from moderate to severe osteoarthritis, markers linked to iron deficiency anemia and with high levels of inflammation, infection, and possible repetitive stress. This osteological analysis adds to the dearth of information about the health status of individuals who live and die in Key West.