Bone‐formers and bone‐losers in an archaeological population

OBJECTIVES Recent biomedical research suggests that, in modern human populations, individuals may vary in their inherent tendency toward bone formation at skeletal and extra-skeletal locations. However, the nature of this phenomenon is incompletely understood, and the extent to which it might apply to past populations is unclear. It is hypothesized that if there is inter-individual variation in some overall tendency toward bone formation in skeletal and extra-skeletal sites then there should be a positive relationship between ligamentous ossification and thickness of cortical bone. This work is a test of this hypothesis in an archaeological population. MATERIALS AND METHODS The study material comprises adult skeletons (N = 137 individuals) of documented age at death from 18th to 19th century London. It examines the relationship between bone deposition in the anterior longitudinal ligament (ALL) in the thoracic spine and cortical index (CI) at the metacarpal measured by radiogrammetry. RESULTS Controlling for the potential confounders age, sex, skeletal completeness, occupation (males) and parity (females), there was a positive association between ossification into the ALL and CI. This reflects lesser medullary cavity width in those showing ALL ossification. DISCUSSION Ligamentous ossification in the axial skeleton and peripheral cortical bone status are linked, individuals with ALL ossification showing lesser resorption of cortical bone at the endosteal surface. This is consistent with the idea of inter-individual variation in some general bone-forming/bone-losing tendency in this 200 year old study population, but there was no evidence of a link between ALL ossification and increased skeletal subperiosteal bone deposition.