Skeletal lesions from a historic Afro-American cemetery • 121 



parisons are made to model life tables 

 (Weiss 1973:115-186). The most diag- 

 nostic feature of the Cedar Grove de- 

 mographic profile is the large propor- 

 tion (55.0%) of individuals younger 

 than 15 years, which is identical to that 

 (55.3%) produced by model life table 

 15.0-45.0 (Weiss 1973:118). This 

 model table is considered to be the best 

 fit for the Cedar Grove demographic 

 data. The computed life expectancy at 

 birth for Cedar Grove is 14 years which 

 is only slightly below the 15 years pre- 

 dicted by the 15.0-45.0 model life ta- 

 ble. The only major difference between 

 Cedar Grove and this model life table is 

 the much higher proportion of individu- 

 als less than one year of age at Cedar 

 Grove (27.5%) than predicted (5.4%) 

 by the model table. However, when 

 the large number of neonatal deaths 

 (20.0%) are removed (i.e., skeletons 

 aged at birth or younger than birth), the 



resulting figure (7.5%) is comparable. 

 The Cedar Grove skeletal series is most 

 remarkable for the extremely high rate 

 of skeletal lesions; almost 90% of the 

 entire sample exhibit at least one lesion, 

 and the average is 12 per individual (to- 

 tal lesions = 959). Five individuals are 

 aged to younger than birth and probably 

 were premature stillboms. Each of 

 these exhibit active systemic periostitis 

 indicating uterine infections which may 

 be implicated in the premature births. 

 Of the 1 1 neonates, 9 (81.8%) exhibit 

 systemic active periostitis with addi- 

 tional lesions as follows: 4 (36.4%) 

 with active cribra orbitalia, 3 (27.3%) 

 with active endocranial periostitis, and 

 5 (45.4%) with periostitis of the ribs. 

 One neonate has no lesions, while a 

 second shows healed endocranial peri- 

 ostitis. The 17 children between 3 and 

 20 months of age display a lesion pat- 

 tern comprising 23.5% craniotabes. 



Table 3. Percent healed osteolytic/prolifarative lesions by age in years 



58.5% active cribra orbitalia, 41.2% 

 active sy.stemic periostitis, and 35.3% 

 active endocranial periostitis. Al- 

 though the most extensive lesion com- 

 plex is systemic bacterial infection, two 

 of the four cases of rib periostitis are not 

 associated with other bone lesions. The 

 pattern of childhood deaths is also of 

 interest. The childhood deaths begin at 

 3 months of age and slowly increase to 

 a peak at 1 8 months where 4 1 . 2% of the 

 subadult deaths occur. The adult skele- 

 tal lesion pattern is far more diverse and 

 exhibits a number of different lesion 

 complexes. The lesion frequencies are 

 high with 100% for the 15 males and 

 86% for the 21 females. The frequency 

 of healed cribra orbitalia (males 13.3%, 

 females 0.0%) and remodeled porotic 

 hyperostosis (males 33%, females 

 23.8%) indicates prior experience with 

 anemia. The periostitis rates of the 

 lower limbs are high for both males 

 (60.0%) and females (52.4%). Several 

 of the lesions exhibit the morphological 

 feature of subperiosteal hemorrhage. 

 The frequencies of male spinal os- 

 teophytosis (46.7%), Schmorl's nodes 

 (33.3%), osteoarthritis of the major 

 joints (33.3%), hands (13.3%), and feet 

 (26.7%) are all relatively high. The 

 females exhibit a similar pattern of spi- 

 nal osteophytosis (33.3%), Schmorl's 

 nodes ( 19.0%), and osteoarthritis of the 

 major joints (28.6%), hands (19.0%) 

 and feet (19.0%). 



Trauma is frequent with the males 

 exhibiting 20.0% healed cranial frac- 

 tures, 13.3% healed rib fractures, and 

 one fatal bullet wound. Charac- 

 teristically, the incidence of these le- 

 sions is much lower for the females 

 with only two (9.5%) cases of healed 

 rib fractures and one fatal bullet 

 wound. 



Having described the overall lesion 

 pattern for the Cedar Grove skeletal se- 

 ries, we presented in greater detail the 

 proliferative lesions (i.e., periostitis, 

 osteomyelitis, and osteitis) characteris- 

 tic of bacterial infection. Table 2 pro- 

 vides the percentage of active prolifera- 

 tive lesions by age at death; Table 3 

 provides the percentages of healed or 

 healing proliferative lesions. It should 



Zagreb Paleaputhohiiy Symp. 19iiS 



