Intensive Course in Biological Anthropology

Introduction Vitamin D deficiency is the major cause of rickets and osteomalacia, bone diseases which lead to several deformities of the skeleton. This paper gives a review about skeletal evidence of both diseases in Europe. First, it is necessary to explain the main principles of vitamin D metabolism in order to understand causes and effects of vitamin D deficiency. These aspects are followed by a description of both rickets and osteomalacia especially regarding macroscopic changes in bone as well as those only recognisable through radiographic methods. Furthermore, the given information will be underlined by results and photographs of some selected analyses of historical records. Even if there are some studies suggesting that not only vitamin D deficiency causes rickets or osteomalacia, but also dietary calcium deficiency, solely the vitamin D dependent aspect of these diseases is described within that paper. The same applies to acquired or genetically based disorders of the calcium or phosphorus metabolism leading to rickets and rachitic changes, respectively, as for instance hypophosphatemic rickets or hypophosphatasia, as well as to tumor-induced oncogenic osteomalacia/ rickets (see Berry et al. 2002, Mughal 2002).