Trauma and treatment in the British Isles in the Historic Period • 235 



In all individuals, the presence or absence of cribra or- 

 bitalia, porotic hyperostosis, and dental enamel hypoplasia 

 was recorded to indicate the health status of the individual 

 (Goodman et al. 1984). These features were important in 

 terms of healing of the fracture. Fractures might heal slowly 

 or not at all in an individual who has a poor diet, living in 

 conditions unfavorable for healing to take place. These stress 

 indicators were also noted in the individuals in the cemetery 

 as a whole to compare the general health status of the popula- 

 tion with that of the afl'ected individual. 



RFXORDING OF LONG BONE FRACTURES: RADIOGRAPHIC 



By necessity, the evaluation of trauma in ancient populations 

 is heavily reliant on the use of radiography: macroscopic 

 evidence alone is insufficient to give the information pal- 

 eopathologists should seek. Radiography is perhaps one of 

 the few nondestructive informative tools the paleopatholo- 

 gist has. In Britain facilities for radiography are abundant but 

 many workers in the field of human remains either do not 

 have the resources to produce many x-rays or do not have 

 access to a machine or friendly radiographer. In order to 

 adequately record the fractures observed in this research it 

 was necessary to ensure the availability of an x-ray machine 

 and film. 



Treatment of trauma in past populations was not aided by 

 radiography, which we use today to, first, diagnose whether a 

 fracture was present and, second, to assess the relationship of 

 the fracture fragments within the limb affected pre-, during, 

 and post-treatment. Today the availability of such modem 

 technology allows the paleopathological researcher to x-ray 

 fractures at the stage where the break has, in most circums- 

 tances, already healed. 



Following examination and recording of the long bone 

 fractures in the data set, each one was x-rayed in standard 

 clinical views, anteroposteriorly and mediolaterally. These 

 are the minimum views which should be taken of any patho- 

 logical bone because one projection may be insufficient to 

 assess the abnormality. 



It was essential that these basic views were adhered to so 

 that comparison with modem x-rays would be feasible; this 

 was a later stage of the project. The radiographic work was 

 done on a Siemens "Orbix" machine at Bradford Royal Infir- 

 mary using 3M XUD film contained in a cassette fitted with 

 T2 screens. 



Processing of the films was carried out using a 3M X P5()7 

 90 second processing machine. The radiographic film was 

 donated by an x-ray film company and the work done out of 

 normal clinical working hours. The film used for this re- 

 .search produces considerable image detail and was therefore 

 ideal for the purposes of this study. 



Several x-rays of the smaller long bones {forearm and 

 fragments of other long bones) were produced on a "Fax- 

 itron" machine, a portable industrial unit within the Archae- 

 ological Sciences Department at the University of Bradford. 



Zafireb Paleopathnhfiy Symp 1988 



Figure 7. Distal shaft of tibia of a Roman individual from 

 Baldock, Hertfordshire (4th century a.d.): an apparently 

 oblique fracture (left) is, in fact, shown to be spiral in x-ray 

 (right). 



Industrex C film and manual processing made this system 

 unsuitable for the research in terms of time and machine 

 capacity for larger long bones. 



The skull fractures were not x-rayed as it was considered 

 that little further information could be gained by observing a 

 film of the injury. 



X-RAY ANALYSIS 



Each radiograph was assessed and recorded on a standard 

 record sheet designed after considerable consultation of cur- 

 rent radiographic analytical literature, especially Rogers 

 ( 1982). Features specific to the x-ray film were recorded and 

 included the following: 



TYPE oi- ERACTURE. The type of fracture was not always 

 clear from macroscopic observation, so an x-ray was the only 

 sure way to distinguish the type of break and potential causa- 

 tion (Figure 7). 



