Moscow University
Anthropology
Bulletin
Anthropology
Bulletin
Lomonosov Moscow State University, Anuchin Research Institute and Museum of Anthropology, Mokhovaya st., 11, Moscow, 125009, Russia
Berezina Natalia Ya., Ph.D., ORCID ID: 0000-0001-5704-9153, e-mail: berezina.natalia@gmail.com; Buzhilova Alexandra P., Ph.D., D.Sc., ORCID ID: 0000-0001-6398-2177, e-mail: albu_pa@mail.ru
Head trauma is one of the important information resources which allow indirect estimation the life environment of ancient populations. The paper presents the results of the analysis and differential diagnosis of various lesions of the skulls of several early medieval groups using modern methodological approaches. Over five hundred skulls of uneven-aged individuals from series of the Saltovo-Mayatskaia archaeological culture and synchronous samples from the territory of North Ossetia were investigated. Sex and age of the buried were determined according to standard anthropological methods. If necessary, photographs and morphological description of the damage were supplemented by microfocus radiography. According to localization, all traumatic injuries were divided into injury of cranial vault and facial part of the skull, which, in turn, was subdivided by the nature of formation on chopped and blunt trauma. Skull with antemortem injuries were found in all four of the studied sites. As expected, male skulls were injured more often. Skulls with chopped injuries were recorded in only two sites: Dmitrievskii and Mayatskii. This altogether with a high percentage of cranial trauma in a series of Dmitrievskii, may indicate the likely aggressive environment. The lowest percentage of injured skulls was observed in the population which left the North Ossetian burial ground Mamisondon. Skulls with chopped injuries in this sample were absent, all identified injuries were healed. However, paying attention to the chronological division of the site, in the later part of the Mamisondon site percentage of skull injuries close to the levels seen in men-defenders of the border Dmitrievskii and Mayatskii fortresses, which helps us to confirm the archaeological and historical data about the period of military invasion into the territory. The presence of symbolic trepanation among the population, that left the Dmitrievskii archaeological complex is not excluded, but most of the superficial damages, previously considered as a symbolic trepanations, we place in the specific group, which can be attributed to blunt force traumas as a result of blow of the battle-flail, commonly used on the territory of distribution of the Saltovo-Mayak culture and its neighboring lands.
anthropology, paleopathology, head injury, trepanation, symbolic trepanation, the Saltovo-Mayak culture, the North Caucasus, the Early Middle Ages
Цит.: Berezina N.Ya.,Buzhilova A.P. Analysis of traumatic skull injuries based on the materials from some early Medieval burial grounds in Eastern Europe // Moscow University Anthropology Bulletin (Vestnik Moskovskogo Universiteta. Seria XXIII. Antropologia), 2015; 2/2015; с. 4-23
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