Quantification of Interpersonal Violence in Skeletal Remains from Medieval and Post-Medieval London

With little published work on the subject of gender targeting in violence from archaeological skeletal remains, this paper explores the knowledge vacuum by analysing data from interper- sonal violence markings, resultant of purposeful violence between two or more people, on skeletal remains to determine how rates of skeletal trauma di er over time between the sexes. This quantitative study utilises data from the Museum of London Archaeology’s (MOLA) oste- ological WORD database from the medieval period, dating AD 1050-1540, and post-medieval period, 16th to 19th centuries (WORD Database 2016). Despite well-established trends through numerous studies outlining the decline in violence from the medieval period to modern society, the data reveals the rate of interpersonal violence increased against males by 35 % from the medieval period to the post-medieval period, whilst the rate declined against females by 13.30 %. The rise in male violence is suggested to be a consequence of war injuries, continued post-war raids on London, economic stress, or sample size limitations. Furthermore the data indicates that violence was rarely received peri-mortem for either sex, suggesting trauma was seldom fatal despite its predominate location on the crania. Finally, the findings suggest violence was predominantly perpetrated through blunt and sharp force mechanisms and that violence became less widespread and accepted by the post-medieval period in London, as the number of sites within which individuals with interpersonal violence were found decreased across the periods. This conclusion is supported by historic evidence from courts of laws outlining public disapproval of violence perpetrated against females and outlawing lethal violence (Gurr 1981)