Porotic hyperostosis and cribra orbitalia in samples from the Late Hillfort Period sites at Dětkovice – Za zahradama (district Prostějov) and Vídeňská street (district Brno), Czech Republic

Porotic hyperostosis and cribra orbitalia are pathological changes occurring on the human skull. These changes were observed and evaluated on skeletal remains from Dětkovice – Za zahradama and Vídeňská Street in Brno; both sites are dated back to the 10th to 12th centuries AD. A total of 605 subjects were assessed for age, sex, and the above-stated pathologies using standard methods. The influence of age and sex on the occurrence of these pathologies was examined statistically. Results indicated that at the site of Dětkovice – Za zahradama, porotic hyperostosis, and cribra orbitalia do not depend on sex or age. However, at Vídeňská Street in Brno, these pathologies do not depend on sex, but they depend on age so a higher incidence of pathologies in juveniles is observed. Differences between both sites could be caused by different numbers of evaluated individuals or different state of preservation of skeletal remains. The aetiology of the origin of these pathologies could not be determined by the methodology used here, but with the prevailing lower age of pathological subjects, a lack of nutrition with consequent absence of iron and developing anaemia might be the cause. Based on our statistical data, we can observe that the pathologies we studied occur more frequently in children older than newborns and younger infants. This may indicate that these studied pathologies arise only during the lifetime of the individual and do not have a prenatal occurrence.