This study is one of only a handful to combine strontium, oxygen, carbon, nitrogen and sulphur isotope data for medieval human remains, in this case from individuals buried in a cemetery in the remote Scottish coastal village of Auldhame, which was abandoned in the 17 th century AD.The strontium and oxygen isotope analysis of tooth enamel suggests that the group was predominantly comprised of a local, static population and thus this allows the examination of the dietary habits of a remote coastal community. The combination of relatively high nitrogen isotope values with relatively low carbon isotope values within bone collagen suggests little marine protein in the diet, which is unusual given the coastal location. The community may have been consuming some freshwater fish or omnivores (pigs fed on animal diets), but also we suggest that the combination of isotope values could be explained by soil improvement methods.Some evidence for soil deepening at the site, and by association manuring, suggests the consumption of cereals was important to the diet, and may explain the high nitrogen values found in combination with terrestrial carbon isotope values. This combination of dietary isotopes has previously been suggested to be unusual for the medieval period, but we propose it is perhaps more common than originally conceived. As there are few previous multi-isotope studies from Scottish medieval assemblages on this scale, the study provides an opportunity to construct a picture of medieval and early post-medieval life in rural Scotland.

Skulls and mandibles from the Romano-British site of Poundbury, Dorset and a medieval site at Abingdon in Oxfordshire were examined for porosity which has been considered to be indicative of the presence of scurvy. In addition, a number of skulls from various locations in Peru were examined. Virtually all the skulls had porosity at at least one site and in all cases the palate was most frequently affected. The rank order of affected sites showed some differences between the three samples but the most striking change was the frequency with which the cranial vault and maxilla were affected in the Peruvian skulls compared with the British. The differences were not statistically significant, however. None of the appearances was consistent with those of known cases of infantile scurvy and we doubt whether scurvy can be diagnosed on the basis of porosity in the skull and mandible unless it conforms to recognized clinical patterns.

In 1999 the AOC Archaeology Group excavated the cemetery of All Hallows by the Tower, London, UK, prior to redevelopment. The majority of the burials are post-medieval, dating from circa 1776 to 1835. Skeleton (4105) was buried with a lead coffin plate. The data on the coffin plate revealed that the skeleton was that of Ann Sumpter, who died aged 31 years on the 25 May 1794. The skeleton displays pathology that is indicative of a metastatic carcinoma. A precise diagnosis is not possible, but given the individual is female it is statistically most likely the secondaries have originated from a breast or lung tumour. Breast tumours are thought to have been more common than lung tumours in the past, and therefore the most probable diagnosis is a breast carcinoma.

Archaeological evaluation of the Southern Courtyard of the Parliament House complex, to the south of St Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh’s Old Town, has provided a valuable insight into the lives, health and mortality of the inhabitants of the late medieval city. The evaluation revealed a backland area in the centre of medieval Edinburgh, with deposits rich in artefactual and ecofactual material derived from the everyday lives of the populace, underlying early burghal surfaces. The presence of artefacts including a small leather assemblage and a seal matrix may indicate production and trading activities between the High Street and the Cowgate in the late medieval period. Above these surfaces, and underlying fragmentary evidence of the post-medieval Meal Market, numerous late medieval inhumations were recorded; these belonged to the southward expansion of St Giles’ graveyard. This report details the analysis of the skeletal remains, illuminating the health and demography of the population of the city from around the mid-15th to the early-to-mid-16th century.

Report on the excavation in 2002, in advance of construction work, of a cemetery at the Bu of Cairston. The site was situated on a headland known as Bu Point, 2km east of Stromness on the Orkney Mainland. A number of pre-cemetery features were identified at the site; these included a Neolithic gully with associated post-holes, a palaeochannel, a buried soil horizon and several rubble spreads. Excavations revealed a cemetery of thirteenth- to fourteenth-century date. A total of 109 inhumations, and a further fifteen probable graves, were recorded on the site. The dating and archaeological evidence for the cemetery suggests a Christian context. The burials were supine on an east-west alignment with no associated grave goods or markers. Six individuals were buried in cist-like structures and five were buried in wooden coffins. It is though that the original parish church of Stromness was located at the Bu of Cairston, before the parish church was moved to St Peter's in Outertown in the seventeenth century. It is probable that the cemetery excavated at Cairston was that associated with the parish church. Includes