The mass grave in Västergarn, Gotland, Sweden is located between two medieval churches and thought to be a bone depot from when one of the churches expanded their wall in more recent time. The bone depot is problematic in a way because it could contain individuals from a wide time frame, making it hard to ask certain questions regarding how the individuals lived and died. Also conducting individual studies of the skeletons is hard since the osteological material is highly fragmented and the individual graves has been disturbed post burial. Therefore this osteological study will not focus on studying the health of the people individual by individual, but rather examine the permanent teeth of this material and then apply statistics to study the overall oral health of Västergarns mass grave. Enquiries regarding tooth health and how people experienced their life because of it, are questions that I will be trying to answer in this study. A deeper and thorough investigation regarding certain teeth conditions such as dental calculus, caries, enamel hypoplasia as well as mechanical damage will be conducted. There will also be comparisons between other historic locations in Sweden such as Uppsala, Skara and the older cemetery and its ruin in Västergarn. Last but not least a discussion regarding the difficulty of examining a diverse material with different timeframes.

This thesis focuses on health among children in the medieval town Old Lödöse (1100-1500 AD) in western Sweden. Through the study of health indicators (enamel hypoplasia, growth retardation and porotic hyperostosis) on adults (45 crania), children (31 complete individuals) and the commingled remains of children from severeal contexts. The results showed 66,7% (N= 30 of 45) of the adults and 67,7% (N= 21 of 31) of the children had presence of stress indicators. Although 61,5% (N=8 of 13) of the children and 37,5% (N=15 of 40) of the adults had presence of cribra orbitalia it manifested mildly on several of the individuals. Enamel hypoplasia was present on 53,8% (N= 7 of 13) of the children and 36,8% (N= 15 av 38) of the adults. The enamel disturbances occurred by the ages of two to five. Growth retardation was minimal and was within the standard deviation for each method. The population suffered from ill health due to varying degrees as a result of the urban environment, parasites and infections. Several of the individuals have experienced periods of stress during childhood. The population sample was compared to material from Skara (1100-1500 AD) and New Lödöse (1473-1624 AD). The comparison showed that there was similar health parameters in all three cities during the Middle Ages. / Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka hälsa respektive ohälsa hos barn i medeltida Gamla Lödöse (1100-1500 e.Kr.) genom att studera frekvensen av stressmarkörer. Materialet bestod av 45 kranier från vuxna individer (både män och kvinnor), 31 individer under 20 år samt  209 enskilda element från omrörda kontexter (barn). MNI för barnen i studien blev totalt 56. De stressmarkörer som studerades var emaljhypoplasier, porotic hyperostosis (cribra orbitalia, cribra cranii, cribra humeralis och cribra femoralis) och tillväxtstörningar. Hos vuxna individer studerades endast cribra orbitalia, cribra cranii och emaljhypoplaiser. Resultatet visade att 66,7% (N= 30 av 45) av de vuxna individerna uppvisade spår av stressmarkörer medan 67,7% (N=21 av 31) av barnen (endast de kompletta individerna) uppvisade spår av stressmarkörer. Cribra orbitalia uppvisades hos 61,5% (N= 8 av 13) av barnen medan hos de vuxna individerna var frekvensen endast 37,5% (N= 15 av 40). Nästintill alla individer hade mild grad av cribra orbitalia, likaså för cribra cranii. Emaljhypoplasier fanns hos 53,8% (N= 7 av 13) av barnen medan hos de vuxna var frekvensen 36,8% (N= 14 av 38). Emaljhypoplasierna uppstod i åldern två till tre hos barnen och åldern tre till fem år för de vuxna individerna. Tillväxtstörningarna hos barnen var minimala och inom standardavvikelserna för respektive metod. Slutsatsen var att den undersökta population led av ohälsa i varierande grad från ung ålder och att flera har upplevt episoder av stress orsakade av bland annat miljömässiga faktorer som ökade risken för infektionssjukdomar och parasiter. I jämförelser med material från Skara (1100-1500 e.Kr.) och Nya Lödöse (1473-1624 e.Kr.) framkom det att frekvensen av stressmarkörer är högre, men att antalet undersökta individer är mindre i Gamla Lödöse. Förutom det tros städerna ha varit lika gällande hälsoparametrar hos barn.