The Big Toe and the Toe Bones

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The Augustinian Fridays were wearing pointy shoes. They had Bunions and Halux-Faugers, which is a condition where the big toe gets pushed sideways by pointy shoes,. That can lead to degenerative change in the big toe that we can identify from archaeological bones of their feet. So they were quite sort of men about town, almost these fires, very fashion conscious.

Crushed by a cart, infected with parasitic worms and painful bunions caused by pointy shoes. These might sound like curses you’d wish on your worst enemy, but a group of researchers have discovered they were probably a part of normal life in medieval Cambridge. Across several archaeological sites, the team have excavated and analysed hundreds of bones to uncover the accidents and afflictions of people in the middle ages. In this Halloween special, Madeleine Finlay hears from Nicola Davis as she takes a trip to Cambridge to investigate what old skeletons can reveal about the lives of those in centuries gone by. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/sciencepod