Industrialization is a notoriously complex issue in terms of the hazards
and benefits it has brought to human beings in our endeavors to improve
our lives. This is never more evident than in the field of health and
medicine, where there are many questions about the causes and treatments
of diseases we commonly encounter today, such as cancer, diabetes and
degenerative age-related conditions. Are there genetic predispositions
to these conditions? Are they a mirror of our modern lifestyles, driven
by our fast-paced lifestyles or have they always existed but gone
undetected? The archive of human skeletal remains at the Museum of
London provides a large bank of evidence that has been explored here,
along with other skeletal collections from around England, to
investigate how far some of these diseases go back in time and what we
can tell about the influence of living environments past and present on
human health.
The Industrial Period was a key period in human history where
substantial change occurred to the population's lifestyles, in terms of
occupations, housing and diet as well as leisurely past-times, all of
which would have impacted on their health. London had become the most
densely populated metropolis in the world, the beating heart of trade
and consumerism, an unambiguous example of the urban experience in the
Industrial age.
Using up-to-date medical imaging technologies in addition to
osteoarchaeological examination of human skeletal remains, we have been
able to establish the presence of modern day diseases in individuals
living in the past, both before and during Industrialization, to compare
to rates in UK populations today. By re-examining the skeletal evidence,
we have traced how the perils of unregulated rural and urban lives,
changing food consumption, transport, technologies as well as improving
medical treatment and life expectancy, have all altered health patterns
over time.
