Lǣden

What this skeleton told us: Evidence

A young man around 17 to 25 years of age and 178 cm tall. Tooth decay, plaque and pronounced thinning of the dental enamel (enamel defects, or hypoplasia) are present, particularly in the front teeth. The right upper arm bone has a lesion where the deltoid muscle attaches. There is an abnormally long styloid process (a projection from the temporal bone of the skull) on the right side. This is broken post-mortem, but measures at least 27mm long. This may represent Eagle syndrome, which is a rare condition that leads to sharp (nerve) pain in the jaw, neck and throat, and difficulty in swallowing.

Interpretation of the evidence

In Anglo-Saxon Britain, it is likely that if a man survived childhood, he could expect to live a fairly long life, at least into middle-age, provided he maintained good health and was not killed in battle. This man was well above average height, indicating that he was well-nourished and had been in good general health as a child. However, we should remember that humans are very good at adapting to challenging times! In common with many of the people buried at the Bowl Hole, dental hygiene appears to have been poor for this young man. Tooth decay indicates sugar in his diet, and his enamel hypoplasia illustrates that in childhood he had a deficient diet or disease. Eagle Syndrome would have caused him to suffer pain, and he could have had difficulty swallowing.