Avian osteopathology and its evaluation

Abstract

Pathological evidence in skeletal remains from archaeological sites is to be found in bird remains as well as mammals. However, avian osteopathology may well have been neglected in the past, and there seems to be a need to call attention to the range of pathology which might turn up in bird bones. Survival of disease evidence may be particularly likely in captive and domestic birds. The author reviews the major categories of disease which may result in bone changes in birds, where possible giving archaeological examples. Congenital abnormality, bone pathology resulting from environmental stresses, joint diseases, neoplasms, and a range of infections, are considered in turn. It was concluded from the known archaeological cases of bird bone pathology, together with the more recent veterinary descriptions of other bone pathology, that there are certainly prospects for further discoveries and research in this field of avian zooarchaeology.