Porotic hyperostosis as a marker of health and nutritional conditions during childhood: studies at the transition between Imperial Rome and the Early Middle Ages

Abstract

Porotic hyperostosis, characterized by small and localized perforations on the surface of cranial bones, is considered a good indicator for assessing the health and nutritional status of past human populations. The most widely accepted theory at present indicates that anemias, either acquired or of genetic origin, are responsible for the bony lesions described as porotic hyperostosis. In this paper, the prevalence of these lesions in two skeletal samples from Latium (central Italy) was used to evaluate health and life conditions in Italy after the collapse of the Roman Empire. One sample belongs to the Roman Imperial Age (1st-3rd centuries A.D.) rural town of Lucus Feroniae; the other comes from the 7th century A.D. Lombard necropolis of Selvicciola. The prevalence of cribra orbitalia and cribra cranii was quite similar in the two samples but slightly more frequent in the Medieval community. Differential diagnosis suggested iron deficiency anemia in early childhood as the causative agent of the hyperostotic lesions in both samples. These results may be interpreted in light of previous examinations of same samples and according to their respective historical and socio-economical characteristics.