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Internat J Osteoarchaeol 16 (2)
Title
The title of the publication or report
Title:
Internat J Osteoarchaeol 16 (2)
Series
The series the publication or report is included in
Series:
International Journal of Osteoarchaeology
Volume
Volume number and part
Volume:
16 (2)
Publication Type
The type of publication - report, monograph, journal article or chapter from a book
Publication Type:
Journal
Editor
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Editor:
G J R Maat
Shelley Saunders
Terry P O'Connor
Publisher
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Publisher:
John Wiley & Sons Ltd
Year of Publication
The year the book, article or report was published
Year of Publication:
2006
Source
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Source:
BIAB (The British & Irish Archaeological Bibliography (BIAB))
Relations
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Relations:
URI:
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/jissue/112561321
Created Date
The date the record of the pubication was first entered
Created Date:
04 May 2007
Please click on an Article link to go to the Article Details.
Article Title
Access Type
Author / Editor
Page
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Abstract
A possible case of surgical treatment of cranial blunt force injury from medieval England
Simon Mays
95 - 103
A possible example of surgical treatment of depressed fracture of the cranium is presented. The individual involved is a medieval peasant from Wharram Percy. The burial dates from the tenth to eleventh century AD. The surgery appears to have involved the use of trepanation by the scraping technique. This case pre-dates the first documentary descriptions in the medieval West of similar operations to treat cranial fracture, and shows that access to complex surgical treatment was not invariably the preserve of the wealthy in medieval England.
Diameter of the human internal acoustic meatus and sex determination
N Lynnerup
M Schulz
A Madelung
M Graw
118 - 123
The authors report the results of testing the diameter of the internal opening of the acoustic canal in the petrous part of the temporal bone for sex determination of skeletal remains. The method involves measuring the diameter using a suite of ordinary drills. The method is simple and has the advantage of utilising one of the sturdiest bone elements of the human skeleton. The method may be especially useful for the analyses of very fragmented skeletal remains or cremated bones, where the petrous bone may still be readily recognisable. The method was tested using a forensic sample of 113 left petrous bones with known sex. Intra- and inter-observer testing was also performed. We found a statistically significant difference in diameter between males and females (means: males: 3.7 mm; females: 3.4 mm; P < 0.009). However, the low predictive value (70%) for correct sexing using two sectioning points (< 3.0 mm = female; >3.5 mm = male) was disappointing. No additional accuracy was gained by employing both left and right petrous bones (a bilateral sample of sixty petrous bones was also tested), although left and right side diameter is highly correlated (R = 0.778; P = 0.0001).
A case of metastatic carcinoma from 18th century London
Melissa Melikian
138 - 144
In 1999 the AOC Archaeology Group excavated the cemetery of All Hallows by the Tower, London, prior to redevelopment. The majority of the burials are post-medieval, dating from circa 1776 to 1835. Skeleton (4105) was buried with a lead coffin plate. The data on the coffin plate revealed that the skeleton was that of Ann Sumpter, who died aged 31 years on the 25 May 1794. The skeleton displays pathology that is indicative of a metastatic carcinoma. A precise diagnosis is not possible, but given the individual is female it is statistically most likely the secondaries have originated from a breast or lung tumour. Breast tumours are thought to have been more common than lung tumours in the past, and therefore the most probable diagnosis is a breast carcinoma.
Insights into the processes behind the contamination of degraded human teeth and bone samples with exogenous sources of DNA
Marcus Thomas P Gilbert
A J Hansen
Eske Willerslev
G Turner-Walker
Matthew J Collins
156 - 164
The study investigates the problem of contamination of old and degraded remains in human DNA studies from other sources of human DNA. The authors attempted to contaminate deliberately bones and teeth sampled from a medieval collection excavated in Trondheim, Norway, in order to investigate this phenomenon. Five pairs of teeth and bone samples were bathed in water containing various concentrations (from 10-9 and 10-21 g/l) of purified \\PhiX174 DNA. Subsequently the samples were subjected to a routine decontamination protocol involving a bleach bath followed by exposure to \\lambda=254 nm ultraviolet light, prior to DNA extraction and analysis for evidence of the persistence of the contaminant. The results support previous speculation that bone is more susceptible to water-borne sources of contaminant DNA, although both bone and teeth are readily contaminated and are difficult to decontaminate using the tested protocol. The authors believe that this is largely due to the porous nature of bone and teeth facilitating the deep penetration of the contaminant DNA. To simulate a more realistic handling situation, twenty-seven further teeth were directly handled and washed, then decontaminated, prior to assaying for the residual presence of the handler's DNA. Surprisingly, although the results suggest that a large proportion of the teeth were contaminated with multiple sources of human DNA prior to investigation, the authors were unable to contaminate the samples with further human DNA. One potential explanation may be the deposition of sediment or other structural changes that occur within the samples as they desiccate post-excavation, which may protect samples from subsequent contamination, but also prevent the efficacy of bleach baths in decontaminating specimens.