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What this skeleton told us: Evidence

A 5 to 7 year old child with milk and adult teeth present. ‘Small holes’ in the bony eye sockets (called cribra orbitalia), may be an indicator of anaemia due to a variety of causes (e.g. infection). Plaque is present on some teeth and the lower left canine tooth is being crowded out by the other teeth and is sticking out. A small cavity is visible in the right shoulder blade, or scapula (a fluid-filled lump, or cyst, probably caused this).

Interpretation of the evidence

Cribra orbitalia is generally accepted to be evidence of anaemia, which can be caused by many things, such as infection, lack of iron in the diet, loss of blood causing anaemia that is often related to iron deficiency, and bleeding into the soft tissues of the body from vitamin C deficiency, usually occurring in the jaws (scurvy). The bone cyst is harmless, and would not have been evident on the person and he or she would never have known they had it.