ScienceDaily: Fossils & Ruins News

The cremation process destroys a lot of information that can usually be obtained from the human skeleton. Especially diseases are difficult to observe. Researchers have now found a way to reveal some of the information. For the first time, they have succeeded in detecting vitamin D deficiency in cremated human remains.

Eight hundred years of settlement history with land reforms, epidemics and repeated wars are preserved in the sediments of Lake Czechowskie in Poland. The key role was played by the so-called Margrave's Road, the 'Via Marchionis', between the Prussian heartland and the Teutonic Order's castle Marienburg (today Malbork in Poland). The road remained significant for centuries.