theolduvaigorge:Can you determine activity from human remains?by Katy Meyers“If you watch the tv sho
theolduvaigorge:Can you determine activity from human remains?by Katy Meyers“If you watch the tv show Bones, you know that every once in a while Brennan will determine some activity that the deceased did based purely on their skeletal remains. For example, in the Pilot episode she determines that the deceased is a young woman who played tennis. The determination of the activity was based on the presence of specific robust muscular attachments in one of the arms. In another case, Brennan determined that the individual was a musician based on the strong fingers, and yet another example was the strong muscular markers in the bones of a chicken to determine it was free range. While these are very helpful in the TV show for immediately narrowing down identification of the deceased, this is not how is type of identification works in real life. First, let’s discuss musculoskeletal stress markers or entheseal changes.The body is made up of three types of muscles: two are used for organs and transport of fluids, and the other is the skeletal muscles that connect to our bones and allow movement. Each of these skeletal muscles has multiple attachment sites known as the origin, point of attachment to a stationary bone, and insertion, point of attachment to a moving bone. These are also called entheses. Ligaments, tendons and cartilage form similar attachments as well. As these muscles, tendones, ligaments and cartilage are used and stressed, they form stronger attachments to the bone. Therefore, long term repetitive activities will cause certain attachment sites to become more pronounced. In human remains, these sites of attachment are known as musculoskeletal stress markers, occupational markers, or entheseal changes, and can be used to interpret activity in the past. They have been used in a wide variety of ways to interpret activity in dead populations, including variation in activity between different genders, change in activities with agriculture, determining social status based on activity, and has also been used more specifically to interpret occupation such as the gladiator site in York where different forms of fighting were determined, or the Mary Rose warship remains who were divided on occupation within the ship” (read more).(Source: Bones Don’t Lie) -- source link