Ergebnisse
Results
Interestingly, most of the individuals investigated so far died at a very young age. The majority did not survive past the age of three years and there were very few juveniles and adults present in the material.
In general, it is very difficult to prove the cause of death from the skeleton of an individual, because many diseases that lead to death do not leave any traces on the bones. Children are especially frequently affected by viral infections which occur much too fast to affect the bones. Additionally, in many cases it is not just a single cause but a combination of several factors that lead to the death of one individual.
However, it was possible to find traces of deficiency diseases in these young infants, e.g., signs of scurvy and anemia. The orbital roof and the skull vault in particular exhibited typical changes of these diseases. Scurvy is due to vitamin C deficiency and leads to severe bleeding, also visible as small porotic plate-like structures attached to the bone. Anemia is characterized by a thickening of the external lamina of the skull vault with a porotic surface. Numerous different causes of anemia are known. The question of what kind of anemia the children suffered from and why they developed scurvy in this fertile environment is still under examination.