The physical constitution of Lauchheim "Mittelhofen"'s subadults in the Merovingian period.

Abstract

In the focus the pathological changes (stomatitis, sinusitis maxillaris among others) and indications of deficiency (cribra orbitalia, cribra cranii, cribra humeri, cribra fibularis, e.g.) among the 20 subadult individuals from the settlement burials of Lauchheim "Mittelhofen" were analysed and compared to the grownups (adultus-senilis) of the same population. The pathological indications of deficiency appear in similar frequencies as in the grownup individuals. Therefore, exogenous factors leading to the morphological changes must also be considered and the criterion of age at death is not be significant. Only cribra femoris (synonymously often called Allen's fossa or Fossa alleni) tend to occur more frequently in subadults. 85.7% of subadults exhibit cribra femoris compared to 55% of grownup individuals.