Bones signatures suggesting rheumatoid form of typhus fever in the Nížkov and Velká Losenice ossuaries
Abstract
Research at the Czech ossuary in Nížkov and Velká Losenice, which contain skeletal remains of Theresian era soldiers, was initiated by church officials who had requested the recovery of bones infested by moulds and aggressive soil bacteria. The ossuary found near Žďár nad Sázavou, on the Czech-Moravian border, contain approximately ten to twelve thousand skeletal remains of soldiers, their wives and children from the War of the Austrian Succession and the Seven Years' War.
Examination of the bone matter, as well as historical research, is planned to take place alongside the reconstruction of the ossuary buildings. The paleopathological analysis of typhoid fever, as well as morbidity of the soldiers, will be supplemented with histological and molecular biology analysis of infections such as cholera; These infections according to chronicles were implicated in the deaths of wounded soldiers in hospitals.