Adolescent health in medieval Serbia: signs of infectious diseases and risk of trauma M. Djuric ´ a,Ã , A. Janovic ´ a , P. Milovanovic ´ a , K. Djukic ´ a , P. Milenkovic ´ a , M. Draˇ skovic ´ a , M. Roksandic b a Laboratory for Anthropology, Department of Anatomy, School of Medicine, University of Belgrade, 4/2 Dr Subotica, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia b Department of Anthropology, University of Winnipeg, 515 Portage Avenue, Winnipeg Manitoba, Canada article info Article history: Received 23 December 2008 Accepted 29 January 2010 abstract Although pattern of health in adults has been frequently assessed in past human populations, health status of adolescents as a distinct life stage has usually been overlooked. Inconsistency in number and meaning of recognised age categories in anthro- pological literature, as well as chronological age ranges used to define them, further complicate the interpretation of adolescent health. In this study, we analysed signs of pathological conditions on skeletal remains of 81 adolescents from a medieval site of Stara Torina (northern Serbia). Diagnostic palaeopathological proce- dures comprised gross examination, digital radiography, and histological analysis. Skeletal signs of anaemia such as cribra orbitalia and other porotic phenomena as well as signs of non-specific bone infection were observed frequently, while evidence of bone trauma was recorded in a very low percentage of individuals. In addition, we recorded two conditions relatively rarely observed in palaeo- pathological contexts: a case of skull and vertebral asymmetry indicative of congenital muscular torticollis, and a case of a fibrous cortical defect on distal femur. Comparison with available information from other medieval adolescent samples from Serbia demonstrated that while mortality was relatively constant throughout the sample, Stara Torina showed a much higher occurrence of bone disease. Characteristics of observed skeletal conditions, supported by available historical reports, suggest that the health of medieval adolescents in the examined population was most significantly affected by infectious processes. ARTICLE IN PRESS Contents lists available at ScienceDirect journal homepage: www.elsevier.de/jchb HOMO — Journal of Comparative Human Biology 0018-442X/$ - see front matter & 2010 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jchb.2010.02.003 Ã Corresponding author. Tel./fax: + 381 11 2686 172. E-mail address: marijadjuric5@gmail.com (M. Djuric ´). HOMO — Journal of Comparative Human Biology 61 (2010) 130–149