The impact of the Roman-early medieval transition on childhood health in northern England

The withdrawal of Roman control from Britain in 410 AD caused massive societal upheaval such that daily life was unrecognisable within a generation. Society looked different on every level, from the loss of central government, the coin-based economy and the military, to the collapse of towns and a return to subsistence farming. A downturn in climate also occurred, with colder, wetter weather impacting food production and disease transmission. Despite these transformations, the effect on the population’s health, particularly in northern England, is unknown. This PhD research examines 656 individuals from northern England dating to the 3rd-7th centuries, analysing populations from Roman (n=4) and Early Medieval (n=8) cemeteries, and others that span the transition (n=7), for skeletal indicators of stress. It aggregates data from previous analyses of age and sex, stature, cribra orbitalia, dental enamel hypoplasia and rickets for comparison between the two time periods. In addition to the creation of this large dataset, some populations are reanalysed to collect vertebral neural canal measurements, a novel technique to uncover growth delay that may have been masked in stature by adolescent catch-up growth. Contrary to expectations, the dataset reveals broadly poorer health in the Roman period, with the early medieval individuals suffering fewer instances of pathology and less growth delay in stature comparatively. The vertebral neural canal did not present any change in size over time, indicating that the additional stress experienced by the Roman population was chronic, not severe acute episodes. This new evidence counters the picture of health worsening with the withdrawal of Roman control, seen in southern England and on the continent, and therefore indicates the unique position of northern England over the 3rd to 7th centuries.