Fractured Tibia

Site: Guisborough Priory, Tees.
Period: Medieval.
Excavator: Cleveland Archaeology (now Tees Archaeology).
Published: Archaeologia Aeliana vol. ?.
Skeleton: male in old age.

Catalogue entry: Skeleton 23 had an oblique fracture of the right tibia, which was well healed with little callus or shortening. The fibula was not affected. There was also a small exostosis on the posterior surface of the shaft of the right femur, possibly caused by tearing of a muscle, perhaps at the same time as the fracture of the tibia occurred.

The photograph shows the left tibia for comparison, to show the minimal shortening and thickening which occurred in the right (on the left side of the picture).

Multiple Trauma

Site: Guisborough Priory, Tees.
Period: Medieval.
Excavator: Cleveland Archaeology (now Tees Archaeology).
Published: Archaeologia Aeliana vol. ?.
Skeleton: male in old age.

Catalogue entry: Skeleton 37 was extremely interesting from the point of view of traumatic disease. The right humerus was fractured midshaft and had healed at an oblique angle. The trauma which caused this also knocked the humerus head out of the shoulder socket and onto the anterior surface of the scapula, where a false glenoid had formed. The joint was badly affected with secondary arthritis. This dislocation accounts for the angle at which the humerus fused.

The left tibia and fibula were also fractured, obliquely, probably at the same time as each other, and possibly at the same time as the humerus. Both were well healed but with slight displacement and a fair amount of callus and shortening. There was also a depressed fracture of the skull, on the sagittal suture c.2cm from the bregma. All this suggests either one isolated accident or violent incident, or else a number of traumatic situations occurring at different times in the individual's life.

The sacrum was fused to the ilium at the right sacro-iliac joint (not shown), but this was probably due to a large growth of osteophytes rather than to another fracture. However, it may have been caused indirectly by a traumatic event which tore the joint ligaments which later calcified. It seems most likely that all these injuries (except possibly that of the cranium) were caused by a fall from a high place.

Fractured hand

Site: Jarrow monastic site, Tyne and Wear.
Period: Late Saxon to post-medieval.
Excavator: Prof. R.J. Cramp, Durham University.
Published: forthcoming.
Skeleton: female in old age.

Catalogue entry: A woman (70/151) had two broken metacarpals (third and fourth) and one phalanx of her left hand. Her bones healed in a bad position, with transverse union between the two metacarpals. This injury may have been caused by direct violence to the back of the hand, perhaps from a weapon or tool blow. The fusion would have been cuased by bleeding into the internal wound, forming a clot which later became organised into bone.

Unhealed Fracture

Site: St. John's, Timberhill (part of Castle Mall), Norwich
Period: Late Saxon to post-medieval.
Excavator: Norfolk Archaeological Unit.
Published: forthcoming.
Skeleton: male in middle age.

Catalogue entry: Fracture of left ulna across the olecranon with non-fusion and pseudarthrosis (false joint). This type of fracture is usually caused by direct violence, or a fall on the elbow with the forearm flexed, or occasionally by muscular action in sudden contraction of the triceps. The fractured part may be considerably displaced, as here, causing non-union.