TY - JOUR
T1 - Sex-related risks of trauma in medieval to early modern Denmark, and its relationship to change in interpersonal violence over time
AU - Milner, G. R.
AU - Boldsen, J. L.
AU - Weise, S.
AU - Lauritsen, J. M.
AU - Freund, U. H.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was partly supported by an American-Scandinavian Foundation grant awarded to GRM.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Elsevier Inc.
PY - 2015/6/1
Y1 - 2015/6/1
N2 - Skeletons from three Danish cemeteries, Sortebrødre, Tirup, and St. Mikkel, that collectively held 822 adults (>15 years) and spanned the medieval to early modern periods (ca. AD 1100-1610) show that men, in general, experienced more bone fractures than women. Men were three times more likely to have healed cranial vault and ulnar shaft fractures than women, with many of these bones presumably broken in interpersonal violence. More women, however, broke distal radii, presumably often the result of falls. Both sexes suffered more cranial fractures than modern Danes, with the proportional difference for men and women being about the same. The difference in cranial trauma frequencies between historic-period and modern Danes has implications for a decline over the past several centuries in interpersonal violence that scholars in other disciplines have inferred from historical sources.
AB - Skeletons from three Danish cemeteries, Sortebrødre, Tirup, and St. Mikkel, that collectively held 822 adults (>15 years) and spanned the medieval to early modern periods (ca. AD 1100-1610) show that men, in general, experienced more bone fractures than women. Men were three times more likely to have healed cranial vault and ulnar shaft fractures than women, with many of these bones presumably broken in interpersonal violence. More women, however, broke distal radii, presumably often the result of falls. Both sexes suffered more cranial fractures than modern Danes, with the proportional difference for men and women being about the same. The difference in cranial trauma frequencies between historic-period and modern Danes has implications for a decline over the past several centuries in interpersonal violence that scholars in other disciplines have inferred from historical sources.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.ijpp.2015.02.002
DO - 10.1016/j.ijpp.2015.02.002
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84924654105
SN - 1879-9817
VL - 9
SP - 59
EP - 68
JO - International Journal of Paleopathology
JF - International Journal of Paleopathology
ER -
