Below follows a very brief description of what human osteology is, for more detailed information you can look up some of the suggested readings provided at the end of the text.

Human osteology is the study of human bones. Osteologists employ their knowledge of the human skeleton in recovering and interpreting bones. Knowledge of human osteology is generally applied to three different areas. First, osteological work is often aimed at identifying the relatively recently deceased and is usually done in a legal context. This work which pertains to the public forum, most often a court of law, is called forensic anthropology. The other two contexts in which human osteology is commonly applied are historical. The context can be ancient and concerned with studying the remains of the human evolutionary lineage, for example the Pliocene hominids of Africa. This field of study is called palaeoanthropology. Alternatively, the context can be relatively recent, part of an archaeological record. For example, human bones recovered from medieval cemeteries. The field dealing with the study of human remains from an archaeological context is called osteoarchaeology.

Human osteology can provide invaluable information that can be used in context with other archaeological data to further our understanding of past societies. Good recording and retrieval of skeletal remains allows the osteologists to assess the ethnic affiliation, sex, age and stature of individuals as well as any pathological changes present in any of the bones and teeth. Specialised techniques, such as stable isotope and DNA analyses, can provide further detailed information about diet, disease and identity.

Using the results of osteological analyses, archaeologists can explore different aspects of social behaviour of people from past populations. For example, correlation of age and sex with grave types or grave goods may help illuminate funerary customs. Health status and diet, associated with social status, may be used in the spatial analysis of burials within the landscape. Pathological analyses may give us indications of living conditions of particular communities in comparison to others. Changing patterns of disease over time may reflect the different environments people are adapting to and the exposure of individuals to new pathogens. Archaeologists may also speculate on contemporary treatment of disease and how the body was understood to interact with the surrounding physical and social environment. Overall, osteological analyses allows the integration of biological and social aspects of human lifestyles and allows exploration of past communities from the perspective of the individual.

Below you will find a brief description of a standard skeletal analysis.

Ethnic affiliation:

Ethnic affiliation is best determined from the skull: both morphologic and metric traits are used.

Sex determination:

Sex is best determined from the skull and the pelvis. The pelvis is the most sexually dimorphic element of the human skeleton. This is due to the female pelvis being adapted to giving birth and, therefore, differs morphologically from the male pelvis. The skull also displays several sexually dimorphic traits.

The sexual dimorphism of the human skeleton is not fully pronounced until adulthood is reached and this makes determining the sex of children less accurate than for adults.

Age estimation:

As with the rest of the body, the skeleton also changes with age. Many different features of the skeleton are known to change in a predictable manner and thus give good indications as to how old an individual was at the time of death.

Age can be estimated with great accuracy in sub-adults as the bones and teeth develop very predictably. When adulthood is reached, the accuracy of the estimations decreases.

Stature estimation:

Living stature is estimated metrically from the long bones of the human skeleton. The femur being the skeletal element giving the best estimates.

Pathology and trauma:

The human skeleton can hold a lot of information about diseases and traumas an individual had to endure during life. Pathology and trauma is best studied morphologically and radiographically.

Suggested further readings

Aufderheide, A. C. and Rodriguez-Martin, C. 1998. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Human Paleopathology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Mays, S. 1998. The Archaeology of Human Bones. Routledge, London.

Scheuer, L. and Black, S. 2000. Developmental Juvenile Osteology. Academic Press, London.

White, T. D. and Folkens, P. A. 2000. Human Osteology, 2nd ed. Academic Press, San Diego.