The influence of war on population-based fracture distribution patterns: An example from medieval England.

Abstract

Elevated levels of non-accidental fractures in different populations, regions, and time periods are considered an indicator for violence within a population. Whilst soldiers from a mass grave contribute unambiguously to the bioarchaeological evidence for the presence of warfare in medieval England, we aim to further analyse the absence of temporal variation in the general population-wide fracture distribution pattern. A detailed study, consisting only of clearly dated and aged male individuals was conducted to investigate the impact of prolonged warfare and general instability by means of blunt force fracture distribution patterns in early (AD 1066-1100), middle (AD 1100-1380) and late (AD 1380-1558) medieval England. Statistically significant differences were only observed between the 26-35 years age group of the middle period (AD 1100-1380) vs the 18-25 year age group of the late period (AD 1380-1558). The latter included many individuals from Towton, North Yorkshire, and therefore battle-related injuries are reflected in the pattern. The former presented inconclusive causal effects, none of them could be reliably linked to warfare. It was concluded that aside from the inclusion of battle-related graves no evidence for the impact of prolonged warfare and economic instability could be observed in medieval England.