Dealing with Difference: Using the Osteobiographies of a Woman with Leprosy and a Woman with Gigantism from Medieval Poland to Identify Practices of Care

Abstract

This chapter uses the osteobiographies of two women from different sites in medieval Poland (Kałdus, twelfth to the first half of the thirteenth century and Ostrów Lednicki, the end of the twelfth and the beginning of the fourteenth century), in combination with analysis of mortuary practice, to consider individual experiences of pathology and possible receipt of care. The first individual described in this study is a female recovered from the Kałdus site, who displays pathological lesions indicating an advanced stage of (possibly lepromatous) leprosy. The location of her grave and the associated grave goods suggest that this individual, despite disfiguring disease, received mortuary treatment associated with those of a higher social status. The second individual is a ‘giant’ probably woman with an estimated stature of 215.5 cm, whose skeleton was discovered in the cemetery on the Ostrów Lednicki island. Osteomas of femur, extensive degenerative joint disease, probably healed fracture of the tibia and Harris’ lines were identified on her skeleton. Her remains did not receive a standard burial, but rather appear to have been deposited without care, which may suggest she was perceived as ‘different’ in death and may have been subject to different treatment by her community during her lifetime. The Index of Care (Tilley and Cameron, International Journal of Paleopathology 6:5–9, 2014) is employed in assessing the likely impacts of disease and associated care requirements for these two very distinctive women, and the conclusions drawn from this process, combined with those of the respective mortuary analyses, form the basis for developing a deeper understanding of these subjects’ contrasting social identities.