Paleopathological Findings of Dry Skulls with Plagiocephaly

Abstract

The incidence of the synostotic and/or deformational plagiocephaly was investigated in the collection of 745 dry skulls (647 skulls of adults of both sexes, 98 skulls of children) from "Broumov Ossuary" (13 th -18 th century), Czech 219 ORIGINAL ARTICLE PALEOPATHOLOGICAL FINDINGS OF DRY SKULLS WITH PLAGIOCEPHALY Blanka Pospíšilová, Olga ProcházkováCharles University in Prague, Faculty of Medicine in Hradec Králové, Czech Republic: Department of Anatomy Summary: In literature, plagiocephaly is defined as abnormal asymmetrical head shape with unilateral flattening of the anterior and/or posterior part of the skull. It is classified as synostotic or deformational. Synostotic plagiocephaly is the result of premature unilateral fusion of neurocranim sutures. Positional plagiocephaly is caused by asymmetrical intrauterine and/or postnatal external forces. The authors report findings of both types of plagiocephaly in the dry skull collection from pertaining Broumov Ossuary (13 th -18 th century), Czech Republic. In the paper, the incidence of paleopathological asymmetrical skull deformities is discussed in the context with recent clinical data.

Brief communication: “Pathological” deformation in the skull of LB1, the type specimen of Homo floresiensis

“…Although the previous systematic studies of DP in past populations are few in number (Pospíšilová and Prochá zková , 2006), it is possible that prehistoric human skulls with DP are not uncommon among archeological or museum collections but that they have so far remained relatively unnoticed or ignored. In fact, we found in our preliminary survey that DP was not a rare phenomenon among the Holocene hunter-gather population of the Jomon period in Japan (see Fig.…”

Health status of inhabitants from the period of the Funnel-beaker Culture from Modřice (Brno-Country District, Czechia)

“…From these nds, the sutura sagittalis was obliterated in two skulls (Vargová and Horáčková 1996). In the Broumov ossuary (13th-18th centuries), craniosynostosis was recorded in 4.8% of skulls (N = 743), which is an incidence many times higher than in the recent population (Pospíšilová et al 2003;Pospíšilová and Procházková 2006). The stated values are higher than the prevalence of this malformation observed by Kubátová et al (2019) in the current Czech population (around 0.1%).…”

Osteoblastoma and Plagiocephaly of an Iron Age individual from Ya’amun, Northern Jordan

“…The risk factors or the etiology of positional plagiocephaly are associated with prolonged traditional back sleeping position, premature birth, muscular torticollis, and intrauterine constraints due to many reasons, including multiple gestation or oligohydramonion (Pospíšilová and Procházková 2006; Lance and Governale 2015). It is proven that the cause of positional plagiocephly is due to traditional or cultural factors in ancient human populations that resulted in prolonged back sleeping positions and suckling of the infants on one side of the prieto-occipital region during the development of the skull (Pospíšilová and Procházková 2006). This may be the cause of the skull deformity of the individual under study.…”