Sacralization of the Fifth Lumbar Vertebra: Under-Reported and Misunderstood
Creators: name: Drew, Mary Rose
name: Kjellström, Anna
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2020
Subjects: Diagnostic criteria; Standardized observation; Lumbosacral transitional vertebrae (LSTV); Sacralization; Kronan; Mary Rose

description: Archaeological finds are made in the field, and the museum. Modern human osteological analyses utilize documented collections and clinical studies to test observations. However, if researchers inadvertently conflate criteria, findings cannot be truly comparable. The most common form of lumbosacral transitional vertebrae is sacralization, with eight variants, only considered ‘complete’ when one or both sides have bony fusion. Complete sacralization reportedly occurs in 1.5%-14% of archaeological and modern populations; yet differentiation of variants is underreported in the literature. Studies can conflate most or all types, resulting in rates as high as 46%. Sacralization is compared between <em>Mary Rose</em> and <em>Kronan</em>. Both samples have 16.7% true prevalence of complete sacralization; 38.3% of <em>Mary Rose</em> sacra and 26.7% of Kronan sacra show some variant of sacralization. Results suggest complete sacralization among medieval and early modern populations is higher than previously recognized; further, observations of sacralization must be consistently delineated by type.
description: The work is based on observations that began to become compelling in early 2009 or so, and which I ran past Robert Jurmain when he visited the Mary Rose collection that September at my invitation. The project soon expanded to include a second sample of able-bodied crewmen, at work the day they died, from the Kronan. In addition I have viewed two medieval populations to assess prevalence of lumbosacral transitional vertebrae (LSTV), though this data is not included in this paper. Over the years, Bob Tague has provided a few words of advice on assessing LSTV, and seemed interested in the project. Recently, I mentioned to Bob the paper had not yet been published. He then urged me to "Do it! Otherwise the work gets stale." Bob has never read the paper, not even in draft form. It has been shown interest by journals that focus on paleopathology, only to eventually be dropped because sacralization is "not a disease". Another well-known journal decided it was "Not up to our standards." But LSTV is misdiagnosed or inconsistently diagnosed in both the archaeological record, and in clinical studies. This is a call for consistent evaluation. What began as an investigation into rates of sacralized fifth lumbar vertebrae soon turned into a different quest: to suggest archaeologists and researchers (and clinicians!) standardize their observations of this anomaly. We hope to bring consistency and thus comparability to osteological studies. Colleagues who have read drafts of the paper agree workers need to clarify the differences between forms of LSTV. Anna and would also like to see this paper reach a wider audience than friends and colleagues. I know I have included far too many words on the etiology and development of sacralization. I'm providing a sort of information buffet. Finally, my hands are in some images. I cannot remove them without removing parts of a sacrum that a reader, knowledgeable about human bones, mighty use to agree, or disagree with us. But these aspects reflect actual field conditions: visiting scholars are pressed for time on research visits and things aren't always perfect. Also I was still gathering data and wasn't sure if I would proceed much further than a small grey-literature paper [and hah, I have not]. The human sacrum is curved and cannot easily be photographed unless it is propped or held. Thank you Rose Drew