Leonardo DiCaprio criticizes Ottawa over B.C. salmon farms
Salmon farms have long been a point of contention between environmentalists and fish farmers in British Columbia, but a much bigger net is now being cast on the topic.
They were the Jimmy Choos of their day.
Known as poulaines, pointy leather shoes were the height of fashion in 14th century Britain. Medieval men and women about town, however, suffered for their fancy footwear: They got bunions.
The painful condition is common today, especially among women. Paleopathologist Jenna Dittmar was surprised to find evidence of bunions, more formally known as Hallux valgus, among the skeletal remains she was investigating for a wider project on life experience in the medieval period.
"You get degenerative changes in the bones of the feet. There's very clear osteological signs that the toes were pushed laterally. And there's basically holes in the bone suggesting that the ligaments were pulling away. It looks painful to look at the bone," said Dittmar, a research fellow at the University of Aberdeen, who was at the University of Cambridge while she conducted the research.
A bunion forms when the big toe becomes angled and a bony protrusion forms on the inside of the foot. The deformity is often associated with high heels and constrictive footwear, although other factors like genetics play a role. The bump can be painful and make it harder to balance.
Intrigued by the unexpected prevalence of bunions, Dittmar and her colleagues analyzed a total of 177 skeletons from the 11th to the 15th centuries buried in and around Cambridge in the United Kingdom. The research team found that 27% of the skeletons dating from the 14th and 15th centuries suffered from bunions, compared with only 6% that dated back between the 11th and 13th centuries.
The 1300s saw the arrival of new styles of dress and footwear in a wider range of fabrics and colors, the researchers said, and the remains of shoes excavated in London and Cambridge by the late 14th century suggest that almost every type of shoe -- for adults and children -- was at least slightly pointed.
Few of the shoes have survived intact, although the Museum of London has one well preserved example on display in the Medieval London gallery, which is 31.5 centimetres long.
It was unclear whether the shoes had heels, Dittmar said. Materials like wood that the heels could have been made from do not preserve well in the archaeological record.
Wealthier, higher-status individuals living in urban areas were more likely to have suffered from bunions, the study of the skeletons, which came from four different cemeteries around Cambridge, suggested.
Only 3% of the skeletons in the rural cemetery 3.7 miles (6 kilometres) south of the city and 10% of the parish graveyard in the outskirts of the town, where many working poor were buried, showed signs of bunions.
In comparison, evidence of bunions was found on 23% of those buried on the site of a charitable hospital that is now part of St. John's College and 43% of those interred in the grounds of a former Augustinian friary -- mainly clergy and wealthy benefactors.
While friars were supposed to wear clothes that reflected a simple lifestyle of worship, it was common for clergy to wear stylish attire. Fly clergy were such a concern to church officials that they were forbidden from wearing pointed-toe shoes in 1215. That said, the decree appeared to have little effect, with further edicts on clerical dress passed in 1281 and 1342, the study noted.
More male skeletons in the study had bunions than female ones, but Dittmar said that the study sample had fewer female skeletons and the team couldn't conclude that there was a gender divide.
The study also found the skeletons of those who died over the age 45 with Hallux valgus were also more likely to show signs of fractures that usually result from a fall. For example, fractures to upper limbs could indicate an individual tumbled forward onto outstretched arms.
"Modern clinical research on patients with Hallux valgus has shown that the deformity makes it harder to balance, and increases the risk of falls in older people," Dittmar said. "This would explain the higher number of healed broken bones we found in medieval skeletons with this condition."
The study was published in the International Journal of Paleopathology.
Salmon farms have long been a point of contention between environmentalists and fish farmers in British Columbia, but a much bigger net is now being cast on the topic.
High winds and turbulence have forced a United Airlines flight from Israel to be diverted from its destination of Newark Airport in New Jersey to Stewart International Airport in New Windsor, N.Y..
The Vancouver Canucks weren’t the only ones who stumbled during Thursday night’s game against the Dallas Stars.
Two men from Senegal froze to death were found in the snow of a wooded area close to the Canadian border, New York state police said.
An historic downtown Toronto bar is closing its doors next week after nearly 200 years in business.
Austin Hunter Turner died in 2017, on a night that his mother has rewound and replayed again and again, trying to make sense of what happened.
Not getting enough sleep may cause you to feel five to 10 years older than you really are, according to two new studies.
Manhattan prosecutors suggested Friday that Donald Trump violated a gag order in his hush-money criminal case this week by assailing the judge's daughter and making a false claim about her on social media.
Niagara Region says it has declared a state of emergency 'out of an abundance of caution' as it prepares for an influx of visitors for next month’s total solar eclipse.
A Toronto restaurant introduced a surprising new rule that reduced the cost of a meal and raised the salaries of staff.
The spring allergy season has started early in many parts of Canada, with high levels of pollen in some cities already. Experts weigh in on which areas have it worse so far this season.
It was a typical Tuesday for Mabel Beharrell, 84, until she got the call that would turn her world upside down. Her teenaged grandson was in trouble and needed her help.
B.C. conservation officers recently seized a nine-foot-long Burmese python from a home in Chilliwack.
A New Brunswicker will go to bed Thursday night much richer than he was Wednesday after collecting on a winning lottery ticket he let sit on his bedroom dresser for nearly a year.
The Ontario government is introducing changes to auto-insurance, but some experts say the move is ill-advised.
Newfoundland’s unique version of the Pine Marten has grown out of its threatened designation.
A Toronto man is out $12,000 after falling victim to a deepfake cryptocurrency scam that appeared to involve Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
It started small with a little pop tab collection to simply raise some money for charity and help someone — but it didn’t take long for word to get out that 10-year-old Jace Weber from Mildmay, Ont. was quickly building up a large supply of aluminum pop tabs.