The role of social status in spinal degenerative joint disease outcomes : Evidence from Medieval Villamagna, Italy (800-1450 AD)

We present the results of a multifactorial analysis of degenerative spine disease (vertebral osteophytosis [VO] of the amphiarthrodial intervertebral joints and vertebral osteoarthritis [VOA] of the diarthrodial articular facet joints) at the Medieval site of Villamagna in Italy (c. 800-1450). Villamagna served as a monastic center, and later as a rural village center for a lay (non-religious) population who were agriculturalists. This skeletal assemblage includes individuals from three time periods: the Early (800-950), Central (1000-1300), and Late Medieval (1300-1450) with multiple high and low status groups, based on mortuary archaeology evidence. Spinal degenerative joint disease is demonstrated to have a clear relationship with aging in clinical and bioarchaeological studies, and where the pathogenesis of vertebral osteophytosis has genetic and environmental components. Bioarchaeological research has demonstrated the efficacy of employing analyses of degenerative joint disease in the spine in order to understand gendered divisions of labor and how inequality intersects with activity. Severity and occurrence of VO and VOA across four functional regions of the spinal column (cervical, upper thoracic, lower thoracic, lumbar) for n=120 individuals from the rural Medieval site of Villamagna show differential patterning dictated by age and sex for VO and by social status for VOA. Analyses of sex differences in VOA severity and occurrence show no difference between sexes across or within time periods and statuses. The results of this study point to the importance of status in determining degenerative joint disease outcomes in Medieval populations.