The osteoma, among other forms of benign neoplastic disease, has received little palaeopathological or palaeoepidemiological interest largely because of its asymptomatic nature. This is problematic because these tumours are regarded as common occurrences in bioarchaeological contexts, despite there being scant data to support these claims. This investigation presents a palaeoepidemiological enquiry into osteomata. Five hundred ninety individuals from six skeletal assemblages from Poland, dating from the 9^th to 17^th century, were macroscopically surveyed for osteomata. This was followed by a palaeoepidemiological analysis, looking at sex‐ and age‐specific prevalence. Ninety‐three osteomata were observed in 67 individuals. The sex‐specific prevalence was 13.5% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 9.7–18.1) for males and 11.6% (95% CI 7.9–16.2) for females. The age‐specific prevalence for middle adults was 2.1% (95% CI: 0.6–5.2) and 5.3% (95% CI: 2.5–9.8) for mature adults. The results indicated the prevalence of benign tumours was similar between males and females and seemed to increase with age. This case study adds to a sparse area of palaeo‐oncological research and calls for further future investigation.

中文翻译：

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骨肉瘤的古流行病学调查，以中世纪波兰为参考

在其他形式的良性肿瘤疾病中，骨瘤几乎没有任何古病理学或古流行病学意义，这主要是因为其无症状的性质。这是有问题的，因为尽管缺乏支持这些主张的数据，但这些肿瘤在生物考古学背景下被认为是常见现象。这项研究提出了对骨瘤的古流行病学调查。从波兰六道骸组合，追溯至9五百九十个人^日至17^日世纪，进行了肉眼检查。随后进行古流行病学分析，研究按性别和年龄划分的患病率。67例患者中观察到93处骨瘤。男性的性别特异性患病率为13.5％（95％置信区间[CI]：9.7-18.1），女性为11.6％（95％CI 7.9-16.2）。中年成年人的年龄特定患病率为2.1％（95％CI：0.6–5.2）和5.3％（95％CI：2.5–9.8）。结果表明，良性肿瘤的患病率在男性和女性之间相似，并且随着年龄的增长而增加。该案例研究增加了古肿瘤研究的稀疏领域，并呼吁进一步的未来研究。