The health status of the early medieval population of Greater Moravia in relations to social and economic structures.

Abstract

The Greater Moravian Empire (9th-10th century AD) was the first early state formation of the Slavonic populations in Central Europe. The focus of this research is the comparative assessment of the health status of three cemeteries of different socio-economic status in the area surrounding the Mikulcice castle. We have compared about 850 skeletons from (1) the castle cemetery and (2) non-castle cemeteries in Mikulcice and (3) a cemetery from the poor village of Josefov located eight kilometres from Mikulcice. The following characteristics were examined: linear enamel defects, dental caries, cribra orbitalia, Harris lines, trauma, degenerative joint disease and occupation stress markers, sexual dimorphism and demographic estimators. Hypoplastic defects of enamel determined on the permanent dentition of children appear with high frequency (over 80%). As the incidence of these defects is found mostly in individuals between the ages of 2 to 4 years, it is interpreted to be a consequence of weaning stress. Cribra orbitalia appears more frequently in the rural Josefov cemetery. Inhabitants at the extramural settlement exhibit poorer dental health than people buried inside the castle. Demographic estimators showed also clear the differences between the cemeteries in the Mikulcice settlement and inside the castle. The results show that there were significant differences between the health status of early Slavonic populations from South Moravia.