Another area osteology can cover is the trama a person suffered from throughout their life. Because osteology only deals with bones, there are likely some sufferings that go missed during this analysis. For example, if a person was stabbed but the knife did not come in contact with any bones, this trauma would be missed in osteologic analysis of the individual. Traumas to bones can be identified in three different timing ranges, premortem, perimortem or postmortem. Premortem traumas occur before the person died. These traumas would often show signs of healing the the rough formation of bony tissue to heal the bone or the smoothing of this tissue indicating the injury had time to heal properly before the individual died. Traumas that occur perimortem, at the time of death, show no signs of healing. One type of trauma that can only occur perimotem is a hinge fracture. Postmortem traumas vary in their appearance with how long the bones have been exposed to the elements. Breaks in the bone will often appear lighter than the rest of the bone and depending how dry the bones are will look like the bone shattered.
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