‘The bullets buzzed like bees’: Gunshot wounds in skeletons from the Battle of the Little Bighorn

Fantastic plastic? Experimental evaluation of polyurethane bone substitutes as proxies for human bone in trauma simulations

“…The spheres shot with modern rifles in the current study compare favourably with published examples of modern cranial gunshot trauma [20,21,25,30,31,32,33,34]. The black powder carbine produced patterns of damage consistent with archaeological examples interpreted as archaic firearms trauma including an example from the Netherlands dating from 1571 [35] two examples from Zürich from 1799 [36] and several recovered from the site of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, 1876 [37,38].…”

“Buck and Ball”: Identification and interpretation of buckshot injuries to the pelvis from the War of 1812

“…This is the first time of which we are aware that skeletal lesions attributable to buckshot ammunition have been identified in archaeological material. While lesions associated with musket balls are commonly described in the bioarchaeological and medical literature for this time period, buckshot lesions have not been identified in material from other War of 1812 sites, or in surgical collections (Kaufman, 2003;Litt et al, 1993;Owsley et al, 1991;Scott et al, 1989Scott et al, , 1998Willey and Scott, 1996). One example of a lesion with buckshot embedded in bone has been described in the tibia of an individual from the Robert J. Terry anatomical skeletal collection (de la Cova, 2010).…”

“…Based on comparative forensic and clinical data, several characteristics of bullet wounds aid in their recognition and interpretation in archaeological skeletal material (Willey and Scott, 1996). Bullet impacts produce bevelling or flaking of bone on the exit side of the wound, establishing directionality (Smith et al, 2009).…”

“…However, given the forensic literature's primary focus on through-and-through cranial injuries from modern high-velocity projectiles (e.g. Quatrehomme and Işcan, 1999;Smith et al, 2009;Zych et al, 2008), the possibility of recognizing other manifestations of gunshot wounds is likely to be understated (Willey and Scott, 1996). This may affect the visibility of certain types of injuries in archaeological skeletal samples, potentially overlooking less obvious and non-typical lesions.…”

Human remains from a post‐Hellenistic grave‐chamber in Dibba al‐Hisn (Sharjah, UAE)

“…13), which can occur in modern gunshot wounds (e.g. Willey & Scott 1996; Dixon 1984). The injuries might have been inflicted with the bolt of a crossbow.…”