Bones of Work at the Origins of Labour

Nowadays probably only musicians and sportsmen in training impose so such stresses on the body that the bone morphology is actually modified. In the past, the conditions of demanding and unrelenting exertion may have been more common and more evident, especially if the stresses were imposed while the bones were still growing. It is for these reasons that very occasionally we can recognise changes on excavated human bones that can be attributed to specific postures and associated with particular tasks.