Antemortem trauma and survival in the late Middle Pleistocene human cranium from Maba, South China

2011/11/21 by Xiujie Wu, Lynne A. Schepartz, Wu Liu +1 · 1 voice
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies #Paleopathology and ancient diseases #Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology

paper · doi:10.1073/pnas.1117113108

openalex publication_date 2011/11/21 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/22

Abstract

Paleopathological assessment of the late Middle Pleistocene archaic human cranium from Maba, South China, has documented a right frontal squamous exocranially concave and ridged lesion with endocranial protrusion. Differential diagnosis indicates that it resulted from localized blunt force trauma, due to an accident or, more probably, interhuman aggression. As such it joins a small sample of pre-last glacial maximum Pleistocene human remains with probable evidence of humanly induced trauma. Its remodeled condition also indicates survival of a serious pathological condition, a circumstance that is increasingly documented for archaic and modern Homo through the Pleistocene.

Citations

• Ectocranial suture closure: A revised method for the determination of skeletal age at death based on the lateral‐anterior sutures

Discussions

• The skull has a depressed, largely healed fracture on the left frontal bone that represents a significant blow to the head that the individual survived. It was a significant closed-head trauma. The wo [bsky, 4 points, 0 comments]

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