Cribra orbitalia in early medieval population from Ostrów Lednicki (Poland)

Cribra orbitalia is mostly diagnosed as being of nutritional origin, especially iron deficiency anaemia, and as the effect of infectious diseases and parasitic infestations. That lesion of the orbital roof is the good indicator of the biological state of the prehistoric populations. The frequency of occurrence of the cribra orbitalia was examined in the early medieval (12th-14th century) human population from Ostrów Lednicki (an island on the Lednica Lake--Wielkopolska Province, Poland). The intensity of the cribra orbitalia was estimated on the basis of Hengen's scale, and author's scale (3 degrees of intensity). 494 adult skulls, 259 females (52.4%), 234 males (47.4%) and one indeterminate individual (0.2%) were analysed. Cribra orbitalia were present in 149 (30.2%) individuals of this population. Frequency of occurrence of this lesion was higher in females (17.4%) than in males (12.8%), and its distribution in different age categories was: adultus 15.8% (78 individuals), maturus 12.6% (62 individuals), senilis 1.8% (9 individuals). Cribra orbitalia were more frequent in the left orbit. Occurrence and intensity of this pathology of the orbital roof was compared with the various osteometric features: measurements of the skull, calculated body height and massivity of the postcranial skeleton. There was lack of the correlation among those features and cribra orbitalia. Results of this study were compared with other medieval skeletal series from Poland.