Cranial trauma and treatment: a case study from the medieval cemetery of St. Mary Spital, London

Abstract

Excavation of the cemetery of the medieval priory of St. Mary-without-Bishopsgate, Spitalfields, London from 1998-2001, recovered the remains of over 10,000 individuals. Following initial assessment, skeleton 19893 was found to have suffered three cranial injuries caused by a sharp edged implement. The remains were those of a middle aged adult male of around 172.4 cm in stature, truncated at the hips by a later feature. The remaining elements were well preserved. The cranial injuries were well healed, suggestive of some degree of post-traumatic care. Evidence of possible surgery was also found. Soft tissue complications would undoubtedly have followed the assault. Battle related trauma was considered, together with evidence of treatment. Whilst the demographic profile of the individual fitted a plausible one for a professional fighter of the medieval period, no firm evidence of occupation could be provided. The case study indicates both the ability of medieval people to survive major trauma and the wealth of information full analysis of the Spitalfields assemblage will provide the osteological community.

Differentiating between rhinosinusitis and mastoiditis surgery from postmortem medical training: A study of two identified skulls and hospital records from early 20th century Coimbra, Portugal

“…Although evidence of surgery is well documented in paleopathological studies (e.g. Carty, 2013;Powers, 2005;Santos and Suby, 2015), it can be difficult to accurately diagnose when performed close to the death of a patient (e.g. Dittmar and Mitchell, 2015;Santos and Suby, 2015) before bone start remodeling, and thus may be confused with postmortem medical examinations such as autopsy, dissection, and prosection.…”

A possible case of surgical treatment of cranial blunt force injury from medieval England

“…A 13th-14th century AD skull from London shows three healed blade injuries. One of the injuries shows two small areas of external bevelling where the gash seems to have been deliberately enlarged, probably by scraping (Powers, 2005). These examples recall medieval texts, such as Theodoric's, on treatment of linear fractures of the cranium which call for widening of the wound to permit removal of pieces of bone and other matter.…”

A Possible Witness to the Sixth Century Slavic Invasion of Greece from the Stadium Tunnel at Ancient Nemea

“…Osteobiography, the reconstruction of the story told by a single set of remains, can provide insights into individual lives and the social and physical conditions that helped to shape them (e.g. Hawkey 1998;Lovell and Dublenko 1999;Powers 2005). The story that can be read from the tunnel remains is unremarkable in some ways, but in others it clearly illustrates the hazards of this individual's era.…”

“…Skull wounds inflicted by sharp-edged implements have been reported in a number of medieval skeletal series (e.g. Anderson 1996;Courville 1965a, b;Cunha and Silva 1997;Mitchell 2004;Mitchell et al 2006;Powers 2005;Stirland 1996;Weber and Czarnetzki 2001;Wenham 1989). In some of these cases, the circumstances behind the wounds are very clear, as the skeletal series in question is known to be connected to a given battle or can be shown from context and other finds to be combat-related (e.g.…”