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An international study funded by the ROOTS Cluster of Excellence discusses solutions to fundamental challenges in research on ageing and disease in past societies.
Nutrition, disease, accidents, physical activity and labor – many of the things that humans do or experience leaves traces in our skeletons. Even thousands of years after death, these traces can provide fascinating insights into an individual’s life and medical history, as well as into the development of entire societies.
“One very important bit of information for us is the age at which a person died. However, we cannot count birthdays. Therefore, we have to determine the age at death based on physical development and signs of wear and tear on the skeleton. However, these can be strongly influenced by pathological processes. Until now, this has hardly been taken into account in research into the past,” explains Dr Katharina Fuchs, an expert in biological anthropology at the Institute of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Archaeology at Kiel University. She and nine other renowned scientists from various disciplines in the United Kingdom, Denmark, the United States and Germany are now presenting solutions to this scientific challenge in the International Journal of Paleopathology.
Jo Appleby, the study’s second lead author and an archaeologist specialised in osteology at the University of Leicester (UK), summarises the starting point for the study as follows: “How long does a person age ‘healthily’ or ‘normally’? What defines age-related diseases and how can we distinguish between ‘normal’ processes of cell ageing and pathological processes? These are current questions in the field of palaeopathology.”
As a practical approach to answering these questions, the authors take up the concept of age-related or ‘age-associated’ diseases from modern medicine and propose ‘disease-related age’ as a new concept for palaeopathology.
“In today's age-related diseases, the distinction between normal ageing and age-related diseases is not clear. This is also the case in palaeopathological research. In addition, disease-related age plays a role when we estimate the age at death based on skeletal remains,” explains Appleby. “For example, it makes a big difference whether a person suffered from osteoarthritis or arthritis at the age of 30 or 80,” Fuchs continues.
Using further examples such as osteoporosis, inflammatory processes, dental and tumour diseases, or tooth and bone growth in children and adolescents, the study illustrates the complexity of the interactions between age and disease. It also shows how the aforementioned concepts can help to address these challenges in a targeted manner.
The authors emphasise that even relatively simple adjustments in everyday laboratory and publication practices can have profound effects. They encourage promising research approaches, such as new methods in biomedicine and statistical modelling.
Interdisciplinary exchange with colleagues in related fields such as medicine, palaeogenetics, environmental and social archaeology, history and forensics is also particularly important. “It is always crucial to take into account the archaeological-historical, biological and socio-economic background of human remains. Living conditions have varied greatly over the millennia – and this is still the case today,” Fuchs emphasises.
Since the connections between age, ageing, health and disease bring together so many different strands of knowledge and interest in researching the past, and are also currently very relevant, the authors hope that this study will reveal new perspectives.
Dr Katharina Fuchs
Institute of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Archaeology at Kiel University
Laboratory for Human Osteology
+49 431 500 15228
k.fuchs@ufg.uni-kiel.de
Katharina Fuchs, Jo Appleby, Marie Louise Schjellerup Jørkov, George R. Milner, Niels Lynnerup, Katherine D. van Schaik, Julia Gresky, Fabian Crespo, Molly Zuckerman, Kathryn E. Marklein (2026). Age-related disease or disease-related age? Perspectives for paleopathological research, International Journal of Paleopathology, Volume 53, 2026, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpp.2026.02.003
https://www.cluster-roots.org ROOTS Cluster of Excellence
Dr Katharina Fuchs examines bones from archaeological sites in the Laboratory for Human Osteology at ...
Quelle: Sara Jagiolla
Copyright: Uni Kiel
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Geschichte / Archäologie, Medizin
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