Commentary on: Assessing diagnostic certainty for scurvy and rickets in human skeletal remains – An update on Brickley and Morgan (2023)

Abstract

Within anthropology, bioarchaeologists working in paleopathology are increasingly tackling questions of global significance regarding the past, present, and future of human communities. Greater levels of interdisciplinarity and moves towards transdisciplinary research now typically characterize bioarchaeology and paleopathology (Buikstra et al., 2022). Such developments have helped broaden and clarify long-term perspectives on rickets and vitamin D status, but how these advances take shape requires significant anthropological rigor and care. This commentary proposes a temporary pause on using microscopic mineralization defects in bones and teeth to suggest the highest level of diagnostic certainty in rickets as presented by Brickley and Morgan (2023, p.641).

Megan B. Brickley: Conceptualization (lead); funding acquisition (lead); writing – original draft (lead); writing – review and editing (lead).