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 dif- ferent sexes indicated that depression fractures, oblique fractures, comminuted fractures, and head defor- mation 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 eve- ryday agrarian life. Previous paleopathological studies from the Medieval Van Castle Mound also indicates an insufficient nutritation and high physical stress.