Application of radiological microscopy in diagnosis of paleopathologies

Microscopic examination of pathologic features in the bone or tooth tissueof fossil humans, or paleohistopathology, is an important element in studying healthconditions of the prehistoric population, which was not an easily accessible methodof research for most scholars because of the painstaking process of sample preparationand its destructive nature. This publication provides results of the new methodof radiological microscopy applied to describe samples from archaeological excavations.Thanks to the progress achieved in digital visualization of images, it is now possibleto examine low contrast images and very small objects. The paper explores examplesof pathologic features in the bone tissues of children dated to various historical periods.The application of nondestructive microscopy helped specify a lethal diagnosis of a childwho lived in Yaroslavl in the 16th-17th centuries and died of infection. Another exampleis an infant from Velikent who lived in the Bronze Age and suffered from a lack of Bvitamins, or folic acid, in the diet. Radiological microscopy is a viable method of researchenabling scholars to study the internal structure of objects without their destruction.