Title:

Strong but not Unbeatable: Two Cases of Healed Severe Skull Trauma in Males Buried in Medieval Mass Graves (Kutná Hora-Sedlec, Czech Republic)

Subtitle:

Fasciculi Archaeologiae Historicae. Fasc. 34 (2021)

Creator:

Brzobohatá, Hana ; Velímský, Filip ; Frolík, Jan

Publisher:

Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology Polish Academy of Sciences ; Polish Academy of Sciences. Łódź Branch

Place of publishing:

Łódź

Date issued/created:

2021

Description:

ill. ; 29 cm

Type of object:

Journal/Article

Subject and Keywords:

mass burials ; Middle Ages ; epidemic ; famine ; trauma ; cranial surgery ; trepanation

Abstract:

This paper presents two cases of healed skull trauma recovered from medieval mass burial sites in Kutná Hora-Sedlec (Kutná Hora District/CZ). These recently unearthed burial pits are historically and contextually associated with two key catastrophes: (1) a famine in the early 14th century; and (2) the Black Death in the mid-14th century. The first skull presents evidence of survival from severe cranial injury with highly probable surgical intervention. The second one presents evidence of successful skull surgery, confirming the practice of trepanation performed by a skilled specialist in a given region at a given time in history. Although both individuals had been robust enough to withstand the pain and strain of the treatment, indicating considerable resilience to survive the skull trauma, they succumbed to mass infection or famine that killed a large number of inhabitants of this prominent medieval mining region

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Relation:

Fasciculi Archaeologiae Historicae

Volume:

34

Start page:

25

End page:

37

Resource type:

Text

Detailed Resource Type:

Article

Format:

application/octet-stream

Resource Identifier:

0860-0007 ; doi:10.23858/FAH34.2021.002

Source:

IAiE PAN, call no. P III 348 ; IAiE PAN, call no. P III 349 ; IAiE PAN, call no. P III 368 ; click here to follow the link

Language:

eng

Rights:

Creative Commons Attribution BY 4.0 license

Terms of use:

Copyright-protected material. [CC BY 4.0] May be used within the scope specified in Creative Commons Attribution BY 4.0 license, full text available at: ; -

Digitizing institution:

Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology of the Polish Academy of Sciences

Original in:

Library of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology of the Polish Academy of Sciences

Access:

Open