Patterns of skeletal health in urban and rural post-medieval London: a bioarchaeological analysis of middle aged and older adult females

This thesis employs a paleopathological approach to examine the impacts of urban versus rural living in the greater London area during the post-medieval period (1550-1850). The post-medieval period in London was characterized by population growth, industrialization, and urban expansion. Studies of contemporary and past populations suggest that urbanization, industrialization, overcrowding, and pollution result in health disparities between rural and urban groups and several studies have shown a higher potential for disease in urban environments. This study compared the skeletal health of middle aged (35-50 years) and older adult (50+ years), upper socioeconomic class females from an urban London sample, St. Bride’s Church, and from rural sample located southwest of London, Chelsea Old Church. It was hypothesized that skeletal indicators of stress would be more prevalent, indicating worse health, in the urban, St. Bride’s sample. Sex, age, and the skeletal indicators of stress were recorded from a sample of sixty-five individuals curated by the Museum of London’s Centre for Bioarchaeology, thirty-three from the urban sample of St. Brides Church and thirty-two from the more rural sample of Chelsea Old Church. Skeletal indicators of stress, including stature, antemortem tooth loss, caries, abscesses, linear enamel hypoplasias, porotic hyperostosis, cribra orbitalia, maxillary sinusitis, periostitis, and rickets were examined to assess differences in urban sample and rural sample skeletal health. The prevalence of each skeletal indicator of stress was compared, between the samples, to determine whether any statistical association existed between location and disease. Contrary to the expectation, these data suggest that skeletal health was generally similar in the two locations, with a higher prevalence of periostitis in the rural sample. This paleopathological research highlights the potential to identify disease patterns and disease processes that occur in response to, or as a result of, changing environments.