Anthropological and medical forensic analysis of skeletal remains from sites in Hrebenne

Examining skeletal materials unearthed from graves at archaeological sites involve complex and multifaceted research challenges, often necessitating interdisciplinary collaboration. Comprehensive studies of individual skeletons can yield crucial insights for identifying and reconstructing factors that influenced the living conditions, health status, and overall biological condition of entire palaeopopulations. The primary goals of anthropological skeletal analysis are to determine the identity of the deceased, understand their lifestyle, identify any diseases they suffered from, analyse their diet and eating habits, assess their level of physical activity, describe their distinguishing features, and determine the cause of death. Conducting in-depth analysis is necessary in order to develop both a basic and an extended biological profile, and to determine the individual’s sex, age at death, and stature. Subsequent stages involve assessing dental status, identifying determinants of physiological stress, evaluating morphometric changes in bones related to habitual and life activities, and examining all skeletal and dental pathologies. Analysing pathological changes in bones often involves difficulties typically encountered in differential diagnosis, including in palaeopathology. Examining observed pathologies solely on bones is often extremely difficult and sometimes impossible to resolve unequivocally. These difficulties arise from the nonspecific nature of changes, similar clinical presentations in various disease entities, the lack of clinical history, and taphonomic factors that have a destructive effect on bones (Miller et al. 1996; Carotenuto et al. 2021). Moreover, it cannot be stated with full certainty that currently known diseases cause the same anatomical and pathological changes in bones as those found in the skeletons of people living in antiquity. This is because the clinical picture of diseases may change over long periods of time (Miller et al. 1996; Carotenuto et al. 2021). When examining skeletal materials from archaeological sites, it is necessary to differentiate the normal anatomical structure of the bone from pathological changes. This helps recognise possible post-traumatic alterations, and – if possible – determine the time and mechanism of their occurrence (whether active or passive), and identify the tool used to inflict the injury. An injury results from energy applied harmfully to the human body (trauma), manifesting as macroscopically perceptible changes, such as breaches in the continuity of tissue structures (Teresiński 2019, 311). Bones may fracture, meaning the continuity of bone tissue can be disrupted as a result of significant mechanical injury that exceeds the tissue’s elasticity limits. In most cases, diagnosing injuries with signs of healing is relatively easy, and indicates that they occurred during the individual’s life. Medical imaging tests (for example, X-rays and computed tomography) further facilitate diagnostics. The identification and interpretation of bone injuries in archaeological material that may have occurred perimortem is often complex, difficult, and sometimes even impossible, which may be due to the poor condition of the skeletal remains. Perimortem injuries can result from trauma that occurred shortly before death, preventing repair processes from starting (no signs of remodelling). They can also occur shortly after death, in which case the bone still retains its biomechanical elasticity and plasticity (Lorkiewicz et al. 2011; Pechníková et al. 2011; Sorg 2019; Soficaru, Trinkaus 2020). The absence of soft tissues and the inability to assess other injuries accompanying fractures (for example, bruising, haemorrhages, skin wounds, and muscle damage in open fractures) present significant challenges in differentiating and interpreting trauma signs. In cases when the state of skeleton preservation is poor and taphonomic alterations are present, distinguishing perimortem injuries from postmortem injuries caused by secondary excavations or postmortem fragmentation is often ambiguous or even impossible (Pechníková et al. 2011; Ribeiro et al. 2020). Diagnosing and interpreting such lesions in order to distinguish between injuries and taphonomic modifications requires extensive knowledge and experience. This includes understanding characteristics of bone healing, the biomechanical plasticity and elasticity reflected in the morphology of fractures, and the ability to differentiate normal bone structure from bone affected by pathological changes. The environmental context of discovery and the arrangement of the skeleton in situ are also important. Various burial customs observed in different periods and cultures (for example, secondary shafts, or moving skeletons or their parts) can often contribute to the deterioration of remains. However, these customs may also carry significant information in the form of traces left on the bones (for example, marks made by tools). Skeletal bone material from archaeological sites is therefore a rich source of information regarding the history of each deceased person, including their postmortem history.