Puberty in medieval Veranes: Embracing all adolescent skeletons for a more complete picture

• Large medieval cemetery provides insights into pubertal development. • New approach increases adolescent sample size and representativeness. • Includes skeletons often excluded with ambiguous age or pubertal stage. • Analysis reveals variation in puberty among medieval adolescents. This study aimed to examine the pubertal development of medieval adolescents from northern Spain and to explore possibilities for increasing sample sizes and representativeness in other research of this type. Medieval skeletons with age-at-death estimations between 8 years and “young adult” (n = 222) from the archaeological site of Veranes (Asturias, Spain; 5th-14th centuries) were analyzed to determine puberty and menarche status. A single puberty stage was assigned to 167 skeletons, while 23 exhibited marker criteria that were consistent with multiple possible stages. The growth spurt began between ages 9 and 10 in females and between 11 and 12 years in males. Although females matured ahead of males, delays in later puberty led to a particularly extended period of female development. Menarche occurred between 14 and 16 years and both sexes completed growth around age 20. Puberty in Veranes followed patterns observed in other past populations. Including individuals assigned to skeletal age groups and those with multiple possible puberty stages allowed for the identification of developmental variation that might otherwise have been missed. These findings demonstrate that more inclusive sampling strategies can recover informative developmental data from individuals often excluded in traditional studies.