Research fellow Elin Therese Brødholt at the Institute of Basic Medical Sciences and her research colleagues compared 227 remains from five different burial grounds in Norway. In some of these burial sites, it was customary to bury people of high social rank. In the others, people from the lower strata of society were buried. The studied remains came from the Schreiner Collection at the University of Oslo.
By combining DXA analysis (bone density scanning) with an osteological examination of the skeletons, the researchers uncovered new facts about life in medieval Norway. Their study has recently been published in PLoS One.
The results of the study demonstrated that these individuals from the Middle Ages – and their skeletons – were clearly affected by the conditions under which they lived, which varied enormously in relation their social status. These differences were particularly marked amongst older women.
Read more about the study at forskning.no:
If you were rich in medieval Norway, you were also tall and had strong bones
Read more about the Schreiner Collection, which is the largest of its kind in Europe.