A Paleopathological Find on a La Tène Horse Skeleton Discovered in Rescue Archaeological Diggings in the Area of the Olympic Pool, Alba Iulia (CX 143 Pit)

Abstract

The reconstruction of past life based on archaeozoology is a challenging domain that offers a range of valuable details concerning former human and animal populations. Additionally, the ancient era is a source of information for human and veterinary medicine, as well as for other biological sciences. This report highlights a pathological lesion identified during the investigation of a horse skeleton from a pit dated La Tène in Alba County (Romania). The left scapula with lesions was collected from the skeleton of a buried 7–8-year-old male horse. The aforementioned bone underwent gross, radiological, and computerized tomography evaluation. Macroscopically, a collar of supraarticular cancellous hyperostosis was detected, most likely as a consequence of an invasive chronic phlegmonous periarthritis and/or bursitis of the infraspinate muscle following probably a penetrating cutaneous wound in the shoulder region. A suppurative periarthritis\bursitis of the infraspinate muscle situated nearby caused, apparently, supraglenoidian periosteitis responsible for osteophytes and exostoses formation in the neck region of the scapula.

Keywords

• paleopathology
• La Tène
• Late Iron Age
• horse
• scapula
• periosteal lesion