Diagnosis of occupationally related paieopatiiology • 43 



anaerobic environment in which much organic material, in- 

 cluding the human skeletal remains, was exceptionally well 

 preserved. The position and condition of the wreck led to a 

 commingling of the skeletal material both within individual 

 deck sectors and probably, in some cases, from one deck to 

 another. An account of the finding, excavation, and raising of 

 the Mary Rose may be found in Rule ( 1982. 1983). 



Henry VIll had a list of his ships compiled by Anthony 

 Anthony and this was completed in 1546 (Rule 1982:26-28). 

 This list contains the only contemporary picture of the Mary 

 Rose and includes crew numbers and their occupations (Rule 

 1982:27). It also includes lists of all the ordinance and equip- 

 ment for the war. In the case of the men of the Mary Rose. 

 therefore, the actual date and cause of death is known as is 

 their equipment and occupations. This sample, like Merbs's 

 Sadlemiiut, meets many of the criteria for the study of ac- 

 tivity- or occupationally related pathology. There is, how- 

 ever, one problem that Merbs did not have; it is a very com- 

 mingled group. Because of the unique nature of this sample, 

 its importance and the possibility of undertaking such a 

 study, it was decided to try to re-sort the bones where possible 

 into individuals. This was undertaken initially for the pur- 

 poses of the bone report submitted in 1985. Because of pres- 

 sure of time (money), the re-sorting was accomplished only 

 within the deck sectors and not attempted from one deck to 

 another. A skull and mandible count produced a minimum 

 number of 179 individuals; the re-sorting generated 9 1 fairly 

 complete skeletons, some more complete than others. 



Experience suggests that an archeological sample of hu- 

 man remains generally displays a fairly common collection 

 of pathological lesions. Many of these lesions are expressed 

 in joint changes as arthropathies. Apart from the arthropa- 

 thies, healed fractures are commonly seen as in nonspecific 

 periostitis and. in the New World at least, porotic hyper- 

 ostosis and cribra orbitalia. In some specific groups and time 

 f)eriods, evidence for tuberculosis and for leprosy can be 

 identified. Other lesions occur generally much less com- 

 monly in such material, although they may have a more 

 widespread clinical expression. They include such examples 

 as osteochondritis dissecans, Osgood-Schlatter's and Scheuer- 

 mann's diseases. There are other conditions, such as os acro- 

 miale, which are very rare and have a low expression in any 

 group, and there are morphological changes, such as the 

 enthesopathies, which have a much higher frequency in some 

 groups than in others. In the sample from the Mary Rose, we 

 are concerned with the last three groups rather than the more 

 common ones. 



Predictably for a fighting ship, most of the men of the 

 Mary Rose were young and some of them were very young. 

 There was a predominance of individuals ranging from 1 5 to 

 25 years with a smaller group in their late twenties/early 

 thirties. There was also a very small number of both very 

 young (10-15) and older (35-45 + ) men. Before discussing 

 the patterns of pathology, it must he pointed out that, owing 

 to the problems of mixing, pathology in this group has so far 



Zofireb Paleopathology Symp. 1988 



been assessed by bone, rather than by individual. It is ac- 

 cepted that, for the arthropathies at least, this situation is 

 undesirable (Rogers et al. 1987). and discussion on arthritic 

 changes has, therefore, been omitted. 



The area of the skeleton displaying the most pathology is 

 the vertebral column. There are nine cases of spondylolysis, 

 including one of spondylolisthesis but, apart from these, 

 most of the lesions arc in the thoracic segment. The most 

 common of these lesions is Schmorl's nodes, and they occur 

 in some subpubescent spines where the centra are still very 

 billowed and the epiphyseal ring is unfused. Such car- 

 tilaginous nodes have a varied etiology (Resnick and 

 Niwayama 1981:1404). If they are not degenerative or re- 

 lated to various diseases, however, they are often a conse- 

 quence of trauma. One of the diseases in which Schmorl's 

 nodes occurs is Scheuermann's disease. This condition also 

 has a high frequency in the sample, in the thoracic spine. As 

 it is a juvenile condition, it occurs in very young spines, 

 although the evidence is al.so retained in older individuals. 

 Much of the modem work on Scheuermann's disease sug- 

 gests that it is probably a manifestation of the node formation 

 and a result of the failure of the cartilaginous end plate under 

 stress which can be traumatically induced. In the sample 

 there are also marked changes in the shape of the centra in the 

 thoracic spine, producing an expansion, often in an anterior 

 direction. Thoracic scoliosis is also apparent, as is twisting of 

 some apophyseal joints, particularly at the lower end where 

 there is also some gross enlargement of such joints. This is 

 particularly true in the case of three of the matched, fairly 

 complete skeletons. They are all young, in their early to mid- 

 twenties, and they all exhibit a great deal of stress to the 

 thoracic and lumbar areas. One in particular has extraordi- 

 nary vertebrae. All are large and robust with huge apophyseal 

 joints, particularly TlO-12. Both Til and T12 look like 

 lumbar vertebrae, with characteristic curved articulations 

 (Figure 1), and the sacrum and innominates are also very 

 large with deep articulations. All three of these skeletons 

 were found on the Main Gun deck in close association with 

 one of the very heavy bronze cannon. These cannons 

 weighed up to two tons and were operated entirely by hand by 

 a gun crew, being hauled in and out of the gun port on a 

 wooden carriage. The hall shot used was also very heavy and 

 had to be fetched in baskets from the Orlop deck below. 



Two other conditions which are a consequence of trauma 

 resulting in damage to an epiphysis are osteochondritis dis.se- 

 cans and Osgood-Schlatter's disease. Both are more frequent 

 clinically in the young and both afTect boys more than girls. 

 Neither are seen commonly in archeological samples. In the 

 sample from the Mary Ro.se. there are high frequencies of 

 both. The most common site for osteochondritis dissecans is 

 the first metatarso-phalangeal joint. There are 23 affected 

 bones: 1 6 examples occur on the distal humeral condyles and 

 7 on the distal femoral condyles, some bilaterally (Figure 2). 

 There are six cases, two left and four right, of unusual pits 

 occurring in femoral heads, superior to the fovea (Figure 3). 



