(ORDO NEWS) — Strange notches on the remains of a wealthy Lombard woman may be traces of two trepanations at once – the second of which she did not survive.
The International Journal of Osteoarchaeology published the work of an international team of scientists led by Ileana Micarelli from the University of Cambridge (UK).
The authors examined the skull of a woman who lived in the early Middle Ages in Central Italy.
The skull was taken out of the ground in the 19th century, when the Lombard cemetery in Castel Trosino (Italy) was excavated. It is known that they were buried in this cemetery in the 6th-8th centuries AD.
Then the northern and central parts of modern Italy were occupied by the Lombards – representatives of the Germanic tribes who founded their kingdom there after the fall of the Roman Empire.
By the time of excavations, traces of hundreds of burials had been preserved in the early medieval cemetery, but the condition of the bones left much to be desired.
For example, archaeologists have found only 19 skulls.
The skull, which has become the subject of interest of modern scientists, belonged to a woman. The authors of the work believe that she belonged to a wealthy family – this follows from the description of the burial.
What attracted scientists to the skull of this particular lady? Follow on it. The most notable feature of the skull, according to the authors of the study, is a huge cruciform incision.
They believe that these are the consequences of a trepanation, which was done about three months before the woman’s death.
Scientists note that, despite the pain-relieving herbal decoctions known in the early medieval practice, the operation had to be very painful: for example, it involved removing the skin from part of the patient’s head.
In addition to the cruciform incision, there are obvious traces of the second operation on the skull, when the bone on the woman’s forehead was partially scraped off (also with preliminary skin removal).
The authors of the work believe that this is an attempt at a second trepanation.
There is also evidence that the woman died before the second procedure was completed: the scraped bone does not go through the entire skull and there is no sign of healing.
Today we know that trepanations have been performed for thousands of years. This practice is found on almost every continent where people have lived.
In most cases, the operation was done in an attempt to cure some kind of ailment, and mainly to alleviate an injury to the skull, such as swelling of the brain caused by a blow to the head.
However, some scholars suggest that sometimes this operation had a ritual purpose or was carried out as a punishment.
The fact that the marks on the skull are made in the shape of a cross may suggest the cultural significance of the revealed trepanation.
The Lombards who came to Italy were already Christians, but in a rather barbaric interpretation. And such a hypothesis would be appropriate if the cross was applied after the death of a woman.
But scientists, following the traces of healing, found that the patient survived the first trepanation.
Although, apparently, she did not bring the expected relief, so the woman decided on a second operation, which became fatal for her.
The authors believe that in this case we are not talking about the sacred meaning of the operation, nor about punishment.
They speculate that the woman was in severe pain due to two large abscesses in her upper jaw that could have spread the infection to her brain.
It is clear that without a serious reason, the lady would hardly have agreed to such a difficult and painful operation.
At the same time, John Verano, an anthropologist from Tulane University (USA), said that he did not agree with the conclusions of the authors of the work. He did not participate in the study, but studied many other examples of trepanation of ancient skulls.
Verano suggested that marks on the skull may have been left by attempts to scrape off the infected bone. He noted that he “never saw such a trepanation, if this is really it.”
—
Online:
Contact us: [email protected]
Our Standards, Terms of Use: Standard Terms And Conditions.