The squatting facets on the tibia of Byzantine (13th) skeletons

Abstract

Squatting is a resting postural complex that involves hyper-flexion at the hip and knee joints, and hyper-dorsiflexion at the ankle and subtalar joints. The effects of squatting stress may induce bone remodeling. Different incidences of these modifications reflect the life style of a population. Stress-induced bone remodeling may be the result of physical and sports performance, especially that of women. We investigated 125 tibia from adult male skeletons from the late Byzantine period (13^th century) to see if they had squatting facets or not. Thirty-one tali pairing tibia were also investigated concerning their relationship with the squatting facets of these bones. There were 64 right (51.2%) and 61 left (48.8%) tibia and squatting facets were observed on 30 right (46.9%) and 30 left (49.2%) tibia. Among the 25 paired tibia investigated, squatting facets were seen on 9 (36%) pairs and there was no evidence of side predilection. On the right side, squatting facets occurred on 3 (20%) tibia-tali; on the left side they were present on 7 (43.7%) tibia-tali, and only one tibia had the squatting facet and tali had none. The occurrence of squatting facets in this Byzantine population was greater than that reported for modern Europeans, but less than for Australians and Indians. Therefore, different factors can play a role in the modifications of the distal tibia surface, articulating with the talus.