The palaeopathology of scurvy in Europe

Abstract

Documentary sources on scurvy in early Europe are largely post-Mediaeval and portray it as affecting sailors, soldiers, or victims of famine. But is this an accurate assessment? This article conducts a meta-analysis of palaeopathological evidence for scurvy in Europe and explores how these data augment documentary perspectives and extend our knowledge of scurvy back into the more remote past. There is little evidence for scurvy in skeletal remains associated with European military campaigns, but there is evidence of scurvy as a maritime problem among whalers and in veterans of the British Royal Navy. It was also frequent in burials from the 19th century Great Irish Famine. Because of their greater propensity to form diagnostic skeletal scorbutic lesions, subadults are usually the focus of palaeopathological studies of attritional civilian cemeteries. In subadults from some large cemeteries dating from the 3rd to 19th centuries A.D. in the British Isles scorbutic changes are often rare or absent. This suggests that normal seasonal and year-to-year fluctuations in availability of vitamin C-rich foods were usually insufficient to produce an appreciable number of skeletal cases. Subadult scurvy occurs at higher prevalence in some populations, likely due to cultural factors associated with weaning and childhood diets.

Keywords: Skeletal remains; Vitamin C.