Original scientific paper

Is Trauma at Krapina like all Other Neandertal Trauma? A Statistical Comparison of Trauma Patterns in Neandertal Skeletal Remains

VIVIRGINIA HUTTON ESTABROOK ; Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109–1092, USA

Abstract

All instances of trauma reported or personally observed in any known
Neandertal skeletal remain were assembled and classified in several ways: 1) whether or not recovered at Krapina; 2) part of the body injured; 3) side of the body injured; 4) sex; and 5) kind of injury. Pairs of these classifications were tested for independence using ACTUS2, a statistical simulation technique appropriate the comparison of small samples. Among bones recovered at Krapina, trauma was significantly concentrated in head and arms, with
weak trends away from hands and feet. Comparing Krapina to the other Neandertal samples, weak trends for more trauma in hands and feet at Krapina remain, with weak trends for trunk trauma in the other Neandertal samples. Not even weak trends distinguished Krapina from other samples with respect to side of body. Samples known to be male showed slightly more trauma in other Neandertal specimens, but specimens of undetermined sex showed more trauma at Krapina. Significant differences in kind of trauma were revealed, with more cranial depression fractures at Krapina and less elsewhere, and with a trend for postcranial fractures to be more common outside Krapina. The Neandertal specimens from anywhere
but Krapina represent a time spectrum of tens of thousands of years and a widely dispersed geography. The disparate nature of this metasample mitigates the conclusions.

Keywords

Neandertals; trauma; Krapina; paleopathology; qualitative co-occurrences

Hrčak ID:

74683

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/74683

Publication date:

31.8.2007.

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