Trauma and treatment in the British Isles in the Historic Period • 231 



data. However, by the late l%()s. in Britain at least, more 

 interest was shown in the use of ethnoarcheologicai evi- 

 dence. The problem with studying archeology is the loss of 

 human character in all the remains observed (Schwarz 

 1978:vii). It is by studying societies of similar characteristics 

 in existence today that a more humanistic and relevant inter- 

 pretation of past behavior can emerge. 



The problems encountered in the use of ethnographical 

 evidence are apparent. There is a bias of study of modern 

 primitive societies toward hunter-gatherers (Kramer 1979:3) 

 but this is perhaps a necessary and useful act before these 

 .societies are encompassed into a more settled way of life with 

 modem ideas and technology. The periods of time being 

 studied in this particular research deal with people whose 

 economy is not hunter-gathering, so care in the comparison 

 and interpretation therefrom of these diverse societies is real- 

 ized. 



Ethnographical studies to date have also concentrated on 

 certain areas of the world, such as Africa, South America, 

 and Alaska (e.g., Carroll 1972). Although these are areas 

 where many societies remain uninfluenced by western ideas, 

 such concentration leads to a bias in data availability. Prob- 

 lems also arise when workers try to use only one society to 

 explain their archeological data. A wide variety of eth- 

 nographical evidence should be utilized at all times. 



Past societies in Britain, as we have seen, are very distant 

 from the surviving modern primitive societies. For example, 

 British researchers could not justifiably use analogies be- 

 tween our contemporary industrialized society and the pre- 

 historic and early historic past. But, analogs for past societies 

 in Britain are provided for by historical documents which 

 reduce the time and space elements. Even withstanding these 

 limitations, use of this type of data should be considered 

 beneficial rather than being rejected. 



ARCHEOLOGICAL DATA 



Three types of archeological data are relevant to the research: 

 artifactuai, structural, and environmental (Table 3). The in- 

 formation which can be derived from these data is extensive 

 but can particularly reflect on relevant aspects of past so- 

 cieties in relalit)n to the natural process of fracture healing, 

 and the therapeutic management thereof. The environment in 

 which individuals were living (both macro and microscopic), 

 climate, hygiene, diet (including food available and food 

 preparation), medicinal plants available, and clothing are all 

 relevant to the healing process. 



The availability of this data in Britain is variable. Archeo- 

 logical studies, until recently, have tended to concentrate on 

 the artifactuai and structural aspects of research activities, 

 primarily because these classes of data were the most abun- 

 dant. It iscommonly accepted that pottery is"oneof the most 

 commonly analyzed and useful kinds of artifacts available to 

 archcologists" (Sharer and Ashmore 1979:306). As methods 



Table 3. Potential data sets for three types of 

 archeological data 



of extraction of material remains, particularly environmental 

 evidence, have improved over the past two decades, more 

 relevant questions have been asked of the data. Diet, living 

 conditions and hygiene are accepted as subjects worthy of 

 study. Sir Mortimer Wheeler's words (1954) were quite ap- 

 plicable, "Too often we dig up mere things unrepentantly 

 forgetful that our proper aim is to dig up people." 



Work in environmental archeology has advanced in many 

 areas of Britain but notably in York at the Environmental 

 Archaeology Unit (O'Connor 1986). Meticulous extraction. 



Zagreb Paleopathology Symp. I9S8 



