ABSTRACT

Human bone was categorised as either adult or nonadult. Fragments of bone were assigned to the same individual where size, ageing characteristics and preservation suggested they came from one skeleton. An assessment of age, sex and pathological features was undertaken on specific human bone fragments when the appropriate features were present. The human skeletal material taken from 4016/C represented at least 14 medieval individuals, both adult and non-adult with some evidence of infection, dental disease and degenerative joint disease. The human skeletal material from excavations and fieldwalking in Shapwick was highly fragmentary. Evidence of infection, poor dental hygiene, endocrine disease and degenerative joint disease was observed in a minimum number of 16 individuals from the medieval cemetery in Church Field. The human remains from Roman contexts in the same field were all infant bones, and where they could be assigned an age, they were all found to be perinates.