CRANIAL AND POST-CRANIAL TRAUMATIC INJURY PATTERNS IN VAN CASTLE MOUND MEDIEVAL POPULATION

Abstract

The excavations conducted at Van Castle Mound, East Anatolia, between 1987 and 2010 uncovered a total of 328 human skeletons dating back to the Medieval period. Thirty trauma cases were identified within the collection, constituting 9.14% of the entire population. Typology and distribution of the trauma among different sexes indicated that depression fractures, oblique fractures, comminuted fractures, and head deformation were more frequently observed in male skeletons, while a post-fractural infection appeared only in a female skeleton. Trauma cases were more common on post-cranial bones. In addition, a trepanned cranial specimen belonging to a mature individual is identified in which grooving technique was performed. Most of the observed trauma cases were related to heavy labor, unsafe working conditions, and challenges of everyday agrarian life. Previous paleopathological studies from the Medieval Van Castle Mound also indicates an insufficient nutritation and high physical stress.