Entheses and activities: a Metric and Non-metric analysis of entheseal change of the shoulder complex within the Milwaukee county institution grounds population

Summary

The analysis of the features that mark tendon and muscle insertion sites on bone has been used in an attempt to reconstruct past life activity patterns of individuals and populations represented by skeletal remains. Many of these analyses have focused on comparing evidence from these individuals with known musculoskeletal and biomechanical data. Recent experimental tests have illustrated that defining these correlations is more complex than expected (Mariotti et al., 2007). Modern clinical data has expanded our understanding of the development of these markers as a result of enthesopathy and entheseal change, enabling further examination of the underlying forces affecting these changes, such as age and concurrent pathology. To further this study, an analysis of individuals from the Milwaukee County Institution Grounds Cemetery collection is conducted, using the enthesis-type-selection technique (Villotte 2010) and an entheseal change scoring method proposed by Henderson et al (2010). 3D morphometric analysis is also utilized. The shoulder complex of adult individuals exhibiting a range of skeletal health conditions is analyzed. This study examines the implications of age, concurrent pathology, and activity for skeletal and entheseal health, as well as the utility of entheseal change analysis for the purpose of determining past life activities.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• People that no one had use for, had nothing to give to, no place to offer: The Milwaukee County Institution Grounds Poor Farm Cemetery

Keywords

Spatial Coverage