Table 1.
Sex and age at death estimates of 76 victims skeletons of the AD 79 eruption of Vesuvius.
Figure 1.
Pathological features in chest and long bones.
A. Calcified ligaments and interosseous costal cartilages, 40-year-old male; B. Proximal first and sixth rib epiphyses with prominent exostoses due to interosseous cartilage calcification, 27-year-old female and 40-year-old male; C. Cross section of the mid-shaft of tibia showing extensive cortical thickening, increased bone matrix density, intracortical resorption and reduced medullary space, 40-year-old male; D. Digital x-ray image (lateral view) of the previous tibia, showing a “marble-like” appearance (arrows) symptomatic of marked osteosclerosis; E. Prominent calcification of costosternal and costoxiphoid ligament attachments (arrows) in the sternum, 40-year-old male; F. Ligamentous and interosseous membrane ossification at multiple sites (arrows) in the fibula, 40-year-old male; G. Calcification and osteophytosis at the attachment of the deltoid muscle (arrows) in the clavicle, 9-year-old male; H. Ankylosis of toe distal interphalangeal joint, 29-year-old male (bone images are in 1∶2 size).
Figure 2.
Pathological features of spine and pelvis.
A. Widespread hypertrophic osteosclerosis, calcification of anterior ligaments, spondyloarthrosis and osteoporosis (arrows) of thoraco-lumbar vertebrae (T12-L5, lateral view), 44-year-old male. Notice severe flattening (osteoporosis) of the L5 vertebral body (arrow) and lumbar spondylolysis (inferior articular part split separately from the spinous process); B. Healed fracture of T10 (see enlargement in the small box), severe calcification of thoraco-lumbar anterior ligaments (T9-L5, anterior view) and ankylosis of T9-T11 vertebrae (arrows), 52-year-old male. Spondylolysis affects the L5 vertebra too; C. Digital X-ray image of T8-T9 fused vertebrae, showing diffuse osteosclerosis (lateral view), 38-year-old male; D. Ligamentous calcification and osteophytic bony spurs at the iliac crest and ischial tuberosity (sacrotuberous ligament) (arrows), 52-year-old male; E. Healed fracture of the 3rd vertebra (arrow) and kyphosis of the sacrum bone (lateral view), 52-year-old male (bone images are in 1∶2 size).
Figure 3.
Histopathological bone features.
Representative bone ground sections observed under transmitted light microscope: A. Mid shaft of fibula showing increased cortical thickness, reduced medullary cavity and a prominent exostosis (arrow) abnormally exceeding the original shape of the bone surface, 40-year-old male; B. Higher magnification of the insert of figure A, showing bone cancellization, enlarged Haversian systems and disordered lamellar architecture; C. Mid shaft of femur with widespread deficiency of the Haversian lamellar systems (arrow), extensive mottling of bone matrix and several enlarged Haversian canals, 15-year-old male. Note the presence of several linear formation defects (arrows); D. Mid shaft of tibia with osteonic texture locally poor, mottled bone matrix and an extremely enlarged Haversian canal (hc), 30-year-old female. Note the extensive and irregular cracking (arrows) induced by exposure of victims' corpses to the hot pyroclastic surge. B, C and D images are at the same magnification.
Table 2.
Occurrence of osteoarthritic lesions in 737 joints of the appendicular skeleton of individuals aged ≥15-years-old.
Table 3.
Occurrence of healed bone fractures in 56 individuals aged ≥15-years-old.
Figure 4.
Skeletal lesion index related to age by gender.
The linear regressions obtained by comparing skeletal lesion index (SLI) vs. age, separately for males and females, shows that nearly 90% of SLI variability is age related (males: R2 = 0.895, P<0.0001; females: R2 = 0.877, P<0.0001). However, males aged ≤30-years-old are in average more affected than females, while females over the thirties are more frequently involved (test for no equality of regression coefficients, t = 7, P<0.0001).
Table 4.
Skeletal Lesion Index calculated on post-cranial joints in 48 individuals aged ≥15-years-old.
Figure 5.
A. Yellow-brown stains, upper central incisors, male 36-years-old; B. Mottling and brown staining, lower premolars, male 50-years-old; C. Discrete and confluent pitting (black arrows), upper left central incisor, male 20-years-old. Note the severe enamel hypomineralisation in the form of corroded-like appearance (white arrows); D. Hypercementosis of roots in lower molars, males 26-years-old (left) and 30-years-old (right).
Table 5.
Occurrence of caries and linear enamel hypoplasia (LEH) in permanent teeth.
Table 6.
Evaluation of hypoplastic mottling in enamel of permanent teeth.
Table 7.
Human bone samples tested for determination of fluorine concentration.
Figure 6.
Fluorine (19F) bone concentration (ppm) as a function of age.
The linear regression resulting from (A) the fluorine mean amount of 18400 to 23300 ppm measured by INAA (intercept = 11958.5±1120, P<0.001) is compared with an equivalent regression (B) obtained considering a 0 fluorine concentration at age 0 (slope = 200.4±9, P<0.001). The last model, representing the physiological rate of individual intake per year cleansed of the fraction of fluorine contamination by soil ash deposit, shows an evident age-dependent increase of fluorine (R2 = 0.961). Children aged ≤10-years-old were not included in this model, due to the high diagenetic amount of fluorine released by the ash deposit. The resulting corrected mean values of 2042 to 11342 ppm show a minority of individuals matching the normal-physiological (<3500 ppm) and preclinical (<5500 ppm) ranges of fluorine bone concentration, while the majority belongs to all the three clinical phases of skeletal fluorosis, with several mature (≥40-years-old) individuals in the crippling phase III.