Blue Bridge Lane
&
Fishergate House
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Only one of the cremated individuals had suffered from a pathological condition which could be detected in the burnt bones. This was not unexpected, as most of the cremated individuals were children, who are more likely to suffer and succumb to acute disease, rather than chronic conditions which manifest in the skeleton.
A five to seven year old juvenile (C1617) had been buried with an adolescent or adult in a rusticated grey ware urn. The child had suffered from an infection (osteitis) of the compact bone of the femoral shaft and new bone formation inside the shaft.
The same individual showed evidence for a mild cortical defect at the site of the attachment of teres major on the right humerus. This muscle is responsible for medially rotating, extending and adducting the arm. The fact that such a young child exhibited a cortical defect, indicative of repetitive microtrauma, suggests that even the youngest members of Roman society had to help with daily tasks. This evidence was also present for the medieval period - twenty-five juveniles exhibited mild to severe cortical defects at the insertion of teres major.
Of two Roman cremation burials and eight Roman inhumations analysed from Piccadilly, 500m to the north of Fishergate House, three inhumations showed evidence for non-specific infection in the form of bone surface inflammatory reaction (Holst et al 1998). This was concentrated on the tibiae, and affected two female adults and one juvenile. Comparative analysis thus suggests that infection and inflammation were common inflictions of the Roman period, and this trend could still be observed 1,000 years later.
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