Osteosarcoma is a rare type of malignant neoplasm that is most frequent in adolescents and young adults although it can develop at any age. It can metastasize from a primary site in bone to other bones and soft tissues. Usually the disorder causes a single bone-forming lesion (unicentric) but some cases have multicentric, bone-forming lesions. Some of these lesions develop at different sites at different times. In a second variant of multicentric osteosarcoma, synchronous bone-forming lesions develop at multiple sites. Distinguishing between these two types of multicentric osteosarcoma is challenging in a clinical context and the criteria for doing so are unlikely to be met in an archaeological burial. Wolverhampton burial HB 39 was excavated from an early-nineteenth century cemetery site in England. It consists of the incomplete skeleton of an adult male of at least 45 years of age with multicentric osteosarcoma. The individual represented by this burial also had diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis (DISH). Three of the bone-forming lesions associated with osteosarcoma developed on the bony outgrowths related to DISH.

The results of carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis from two medieval populations are presented here, in a study investigating dietary habits within a medieval hospital population in England. We used δ13C and δ15N measurements of bone collagen in order to attempt to identify a distinct group diet within the medieval hospital of St. Giles, Brough, Yorkshire, and examine the reasons why the dietary habits within the institution may have been noticeably different from that of a comparative lay population. Following the results and tentative conclusions of a study conducted by Müldner and Richards (2005), it was hypothesised that religious fasting rules would result in there being evidence of greater consumption marine fish at St. Giles than at the rural township of Box Lane, Pontefract, Yorkshire. While more dietary variation was found at the hospital, it can be seen that the differences in δ13C and δ15N isotope values vary in relation to the animal baselines. Thus, differences between the human populations can be attributed to geological and environmental factors as opposed to dietary differences.

The overarching theme of the book is differential treatment in death, which is examined at the site-specific, settlement, regional and national level. More specifically, the symbolism of conversion-period grave good deposition, the impact of the church, and aspects of identity, burial diversity and biocultural approaches to cemetery analysis are discussed.

Digitised Diseases is a major web-based 3D resource of chronic disease conditions that manifest change to the human skeleton. The resource was established through funds from Jisc, the University of Bradford and Bradford Visualisation. The multidisciplinary team involving project partners Museum of London Archaeology and the Royal College of Surgeons of England undertook a program of mass digitization of pathological type specimens from world-renowned archaeological, historic and medical collections at the University of Bradford, in London and York. We continue to augment this resource through ingestion of new content. The resource was always envisaged as needing to appeal to a diverse user community, having impact not just among academic and clinical beneficiaries, but also enriching the wider understanding of public health in the past. From the outset, our focus was on making sure that the digitized paleopathological exemplars were represented and understood within a broader clinical context. In essence we wanted to emphasize the impact of living with disease and disability in an era before modern therapies were available and the significance of care provision that would have been required at a societal level, given the longevity of many of these conditions.

This study investigated stable-isotope ratio evidence of weaning for the late Anglo-Saxon population of Raunds Furnells, Northamptonshire, UK. δ15N and δ13C values in rib collagen were obtained for individuals of different ages to assess the weaning age of infants within the population. A peak in δ15N values at about 2-year-old, followed by a decline in δ15N values until age three, indicates a change in diet at that age. This change in nitrogen isotope ratios corresponds with the mortality profile from the site, as well as with archaeological and documentary evidence on attitudes towards juveniles in the Anglo-Saxon period. The pattern of δ13C values was less clear. Comparison of the predicted age of weaning to published data from sites dating from the Iron Age to the 19th century in Britain reveals a pattern of changing weaning practices over time, with increasingly earlier commencement and shorter periods of complementary feeding in more recent periods. Such a change has implications for the interpretation of socioeconomic changes during this period of British history, since earlier weaning is associated with decreased birth spacing, and could thus have contributed to population growth.

Archaeological work in advance of construction at a site on the edge of York, UK, yielded human remains of prehistoric to Romano-British date. Amongst these was a mandible and cranium, the intra-cranial space of which contained shrunken but macroscopically recognizable remains of a brain. Although the distinctive surface morphology of the organ is preserved, little recognizable brain histology survives. Though rare, the survival of brain tissue in otherwise skeletalised human remains from wet burial environments is not unique. A survey of the literature shows that similar brain masses have been previously reported in diverse circumstances. We argue for a greater awareness of these brain masses and for more attention to be paid to their detection and identification in order to improve the reporting rate and to allow a more comprehensive study of this rare archaeological survival.

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