Historians can learn a lot from skeletons, including:

• Identity: Experts can determine sex, age, and ethnicity relatively easily from the skeleton, with the skull and pelvis playing pivotal roles in this analysis. By analyzing the bones, historians can learn about the physical characteristics of individuals and groups of people from the past.

• Lifestyle: Anthropologists can learn about the lifestyle of individuals and groups of people from the past by analyzing their bones. For example, by looking at patterns of disease across whole groups of people, anthropologists can learn about trends in health and hygiene across time. By studying the teeth, anthropologists can learn about the diet of individuals and groups of people from the past.

• Cause of death: Although determining how someone died from their bones can be difficult, it is possible to identify certain injuries or diseases that may have contributed to their death.

• Social and economic status: By analyzing the bones, historians can learn about the social and economic status of individuals and groups of people from the past. For example, if the teeth are well-maintained and have good dental work such as fillings, it may indicate that the individual was able to afford proper dental care. By examining the wrists, bones often hold clues to the primary work of the decedent. A forensic anthropologist might find a bony ridge on the wrist and decide the dead person may have been someone who used their hands for a living, such as a chef or seamstress.

• Population health: By analyzing the bones of groups of people from the past, historians can learn about trends in health and disease across time. For example, markers of disease in the teeth and bones of an individual can say something about their life, and looking at patterns of disease across whole groups of people, anthropologists can learn about trends in health and hygiene across time.

In summary, historians can learn a lot from skeletons, including information about identity, lifestyle, cause of death, social and economic status, and population health.