Palaeopathology in Zooarchaeology: The Application of Skeletal Lesion Patterning and Differential Diagnosis to the Study of a Zoonotic Disease (Jeanette Wooding)

Palaeopathology in Zooarchaeology: The Application of Skeletal Lesion Patterning and Differential Diagnosis to the Study of a Zoonotic Disease (Jeanette Wooding)

Palaeopathology in human osteoarchaeology has developed considerably in the last three decades. Successful alliances have been forged between medical practitioners, archaeologists, and anthropologists, resulting in both a structured and standardised framework of practice (O’Connor 2000). Unfortunately, the field of zooarchaeology has not shared the same fate; progress has been comparatively slow, impeded by the disarticulated nature of faunal assemblages and the lack of standard recording methods for palaeopathological conditions in faunal remains. As a result of this, researchers can draw little confidence that routine recording of palaeopathological lesions, their description or their differential diagnosis will ever form a standard part of zooarchaeological analysis under present circumstances. This research seeks to tackle these obstacles by bringing the disciplines of zooarchaeology and human osteoarchaeology to bear on the study of bovine tuberculosis (bTB) – a zoonotic disease known to affect both animals and humans.

Bovine tuberculosis is a significant health problem in modern wild and domesticated animals, but information (both written and pictorial) related to its skeletal manifestation in faunal remains is scarce, although informative where it exists. This research aims to provide a better understanding of this disease among domesticated animals in the past through the implementation of skeletal lesion patterning and differential diagnosis; methods regularly employed in human palaeopathology. Modern and archaeological articulated animal bone groups (ABG’s) and disarticulated archaeological assemblages have been targeted for study, with radiography and ancient DNA (aDNA) analyses also utilised.

Jeanette Wooding, Division of Archaeological, Geographical and Environmental Sciences (AGES), University of Bradford

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