The new Coimbra method for recording entheseal changes and the effect of age-at-death

What is it about?

This paper descriibes the variability of changes to tendon attachments in the skeleton (entheseal changes) in a documented skeletal collection enabling an exploration of the impact of ageing. Entheseal changes were recorded using the new Coimbra method, which records features (e.g. mineralisation, erosion and porosity) at fibrocartilaginous entheses. The results show that, while ageing is an important factor in their presence there is likely a (small) biomechanical component in their aetiology.

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Why is it important?

Entheseal changes have been widely used to study activity-patterns in past populations to understand the social divisions of labour. However, their aetiology is poorly understood and, while they have limited clinical significance, their expression in skeletal remains has led them to be widely recorded as a direct indicator of muscle use. More recently this has been questioned and this research aims to better understand their variability to determine their bioarchaeological significance.