Comparison of long bone trauma recording methods

This investigation tested five methods of recording long bone trauma to determine whether meaningful differences in fracture frequencies really existed among a skeletal sample of 55 individuals from the Kerma period (2500-1750 BC) of ancient Nubia. Long bones were divided into five segments according to the clinical 'squares method' for determining the location of the epiphyses; recording methods for bone inclusion ranged from including all five segments present and undamaged only (Lovejoy & Heiple, 1981) to scoring all segments represented by 75% of the bone present ('segment count method'). The results of the method proposed by Lovejoy & Heiple (1981) were not significantly different from any of the methods that included partial bones in their inventory, although the fracture pattern may be affected. A consequence of using the segment count method was that the total amount of preserved bone available for analysis can be easily calculated and the comparability of skeletal collections that are similarly recorded can be assessed.