Osteological evidence of remote penetrating soft tissue trauma in skeletal remains

Solomon, Lucian B.; Cornish, Brian L.; Walshe, Keryn; Byard, Roger W.

doi:10.1007/s12024-014-9649-1

Cited by 6 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…While the latter treatment modality would not have been available, traditional tribal groups did have access to a wide range of medicinal plant species and were known to make poultices from materials such as eucalyptus resin to treat skin infections . In addition, skeletal remains of Australian Aboriginals have been reported where individuals have survived for a long time with marked physical impairments indicating that they had access to significant and effective nursing and social support within their tribal groups . The presence of normal inner skull tables in the study group may suggest that the fractures were not compound.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…Correct identification enables the exclusion of more recent deaths and notification of traditional Aboriginal groups/land owners. Although sophisticated techniques such as 14 C dating are available , these are time‐consuming and expensive and so identification often relies on an assessment of the morphology of the remains, in association with their environmental context. Certain acquired characteristic features of traditional Aboriginal skeletal remains include prominent wearing of teeth, healed parry fractures, and squatting notches .…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Healed Depressed Parasagittal Skull Fractures—A Feature of Archaic Australian Aboriginal Remains

Walshe

Brophy

Cornish

et al. 2016

Journal of Forensic Sciences

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The skeletal remains of eight Australian Aboriginals with healed depressed skull fractures were examined. Male:female ratio 5:3; age range 20-60 yrs. Burial dates by C dating in three cases were 500 years BP (n = 2) and 1300 BP. There were 13 healed depressed skull fractures manifested by shallow indentations of cortical bone and thinning of diploe, with no significant disturbance of the inner skull tables. Nine (69%) were located within 35 mm of the sagittal suture/midline. These lesions represent another acquired feature that might be helpful in suggesting that a skull is from a tribal Aboriginal individual and may be particularly useful if the remains are represented by only fragments of calvarium. While obviously not a finding specific to this population, these healed injuries would be consistent with the possible results of certain types of conflict behavior reported in traditional Aboriginal groups that involved formalized inflicted blunt head trauma.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

mentioning

confidence: 99%