Maxillary Sinusitis in Medieval Scania- Prevalence of sinusitis in three osteological materials.

Sammanfattning: The objective of this thesis was to contribute to the limited research that has been carried out concerning maxillary sinusitis in medieval Scania. The aspiration was to do an inclusive comparative osteological analysis of three skeletal materials and investigate whether there is a difference in prevalence among rural and urban individuals as well as between sex, age and if an aeitology was visible. The materials chosen for this study consists of one from S:t Jörgen, encompassing 107 individuals, which represents the urban material while the rural consists of two different skeletal materials. One from Löddeköpinge composed of 76 individuals along with 31 individuals from Norra Åsum. The results revealed that there was no significant difference between the rural and urban materials. The females were slightly more affected by maxillary sinusitis than males in both rural and urban materials. The older individuals in all three materials were more affected by maxillary sinusitis. There was, however an indication that the younger individuals in the urban material were more susceptible to maxillary sinusitis than the younger individuals in the rural. The aeitology could not be clearly defined due to several reasons, one of them is most certainly that it is multifactorial as well as that the sample size was small. Nevertheless, this study needs to be seen as a pilot study and it shows great potential to contribute to the pathological knowledge and understanding of the medieval period.