Practice question · Multiple choice
A skeleton shows no disease lesions at all. Why does that NOT establish that the person was healthy?
Hints
- Ask how long a bone takes to react to illness.
- Who dies before their skeleton can record anything?
Show the answer
C. Because lesions take time to form, and acute death leaves none
Why
This is the osteological paradox: the apparently healthiest skeletons may be the frailest individuals, who died too fast to develop lesions. Absence of evidence inverts here.
Practise Bioarchaeology
The app has 4 more questions on this lesson, and keeps your place in the course. History I is free to start.
More questions on Bioarchaeology
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