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So, what is Os Acromiale? What is that?
This is the shoulder blade here. there's a couple of smaller areas, one at the very tip here and another one here. If you have mechanical forces on this area that are constantly kind of moving these bits around, it prevents them forming a solid piece of bone across here.
It's like they never properly fuse.
That's correct. So, in this one this part of the bone here is all fully fused here, whereas in Os Acromiale there would be a little line across there at this part here or a partial line across there, rather than it being solid bone.
A recent study has found that baseball pitchers are more likely to have the condition than any other player. And always on one side, the shoulder of their throwing or dominant arm.
There was a far, far higher incidence in the dominant arm of pitchers who were throwing the ball more than 100 times per week.
Scientists have narrowed the cause down to shock, the sudden snap or explosion of energy in the pitch.
So, what about everyday manual work? So, if he's chopping wood or, you know, he's on the coast, is he rowing, will that give you the same sort of thing?
I think it's less likely to. It's not just any kind of type of force, I think it's that sudden explosive force that looks more likely to give you this condition.
The theory that archery could cause this condition has never been formally tested, until today.
Hamish’s colleague, Professor Kia Nazarpour is wiring up a volunteer’s shoulders with state-of-the-art motion sensors.
Shall we have a look then?
Okay.
Let's see what happens.
Kia you've got Jez wired up now so what do we do next, what are we looking at here?
So, we are looking at the acceleration on the X, Y, and Z axes right on the tip of the shoulder blade.
That's left side and that's right side.
That is correct, that is a left side, and that is the right side, yes.
If the team can prove archery creates a stronger shock on the left or bow side, it will be compelling evidence that it can cause Os Acromiale.
Shall we see it.
I think, yeah. So, draw please.
He's pulled back.
So, we see a draw. And loose. We see a really big acceleration across the three axes.
Yeah.
Which is larger on the left-hand-side.
When shooting an arrow, the shoulder that holds the bow receives a sudden very strong force, seemingly enough to cause the unfused condition seen in the victim's shoulder.
Yeah.
But let's do a few more, just making sure that this was not just the one time.
Yeah, I think so.
Yeah. Draw and loose.
Oh, consistent.
Very consistent.
Look at that.
Indeed.
I think that fits really nicely with the idea that this skeleton was from that of an archer.
That was truly fascinating, and what came out of that was that someone being an archer could really account for someone having Os Acromiale, and Hamish seemed pretty convinced by that. So, it's looking likely that our murder victim was an archer.
Representation: www.josarsby.com/turi-king