Virtual assessment for the study of the cranial fractures. Application to the Sima de los Huesos hominin crania

Ana Pantoja-Pérez1,2,3*; Nohemi Sala1,2; Juan Luis Arsuaga2,3; Adrián Pablos4,2; Ignacio Martínez1,2

1- Área de Antropología Física, Dpto. de Ciencias de la Vida, Universidad de Alcalá, Madrid (Spain). 2- Centro Mixto UCM-ISCIII de investigación sobre Evolución y Comportamiento Humanos, Madrid (Spain).3- Departamento de Paleontología, Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Madrid (Spain).4-Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH), Burgos (Spain).

*contact: apantojaperez@gmail

MATERIAL

RESULTS

The authors wish to thank to the Atapuerca research and excavation team, especially those involved in the excavations at the Sima de los Huesos site. CT scanning was carried out in collaboration with the Laboratorio de la Evolución Humana at the Universidad de Burgos (Spain). Field work at the Sierra de Atapuerca sites was �inanced by the Junta de Castilla y León and the Fundación Atapuerca. The research was funded by the MINECO projects CGL2012-38434-C03-01 and CGL2015-65387-C3-2-P (MINECO/FEDER).

ABSTRACT

Arsuaga, J.L. et al., 2014. Science 344, 1358-1363.Sala, N., Arsuaga, J.L., Martínez, I., Gracia-Téllez, A., 2015. J. Archaeol. Sci. 55, 113-121.Sala, N., Arsuaga, J.L., Pantoja-Pérez, A., Pablos, A., Martínez, I., Quam, R.M., Gómez-Olivencia, A., Bermúdez de Castro, J.M., Carbonell, E., 2015. PLoS ONE 10, e0126589.Sala, N., Pantoja-Pérez, A., Arsuaga, J.L., Pablos, A., Martínez, I., 2016. J. Archaeol. Sci. 72, 25-43.

CR-1 CR-2 CR-3 CR-4 CR-5 CR-6

CR-7 CR-8 CR-9 CR-10 CR-11 CR-12

CR13 CR-14 CR-15 CR-16 CR-17

PERIMORTEM

ANTEMORTEM

The Sima de los Huesos hominin crania mainly display postmortem fracturation.

The fracture pattern is compatible with collective burial assemblages.

In addition, eight crania also display some typical perimortem traumas.

Violence-related causes are the most plausible scenario for the perimortem traumas.

CONCLUSIONS

CR-3 CR-5

CR-7 CR-11

CR-17 CR-13

CR-14

3cm

Fracture outline 1. Linear 2. Depressed 3. Stellate 4. 2+3Trayectory 5. Not cross suture 6. Crossing sutureLocation 7. Above HBL 8. HBL 9. Below HBLFracture angle 10. Right 11. ObliqueCortical delamination 12. Absence 13. PresenceFracture texture 14. Smooth 15. Jagged

METHODS

1 1 23

4

5 67

8

9 10 11

12 13

14 15

516 FRACTURES

POSTMORTEM97,4%

PERIMORTEM2,6%

CR-5

CR-12

CR-3CR-11

CR-9

CR-17CR-14

CR-1CR-8CR-15

CR-13

CR-7

CR-16

CR-2

CR-10

CR-6

214

13

1, 5, 10,12, 15

11

6

DIMENSION 1 (EIGENV. =0.46; 10.41% INERTIA)

DIM

ENSI

ON

2 (E

IGEN

V. =

0.21

; 4.6

2% IN

ERTI

A)

Numbers in green represent fracture caracteristics (see methods)

1

1 1

2 22

3

33

28.9º31.5º

28.1º

36.1º

22.8º

28.2º

1

2

23.3º

22º

26.6º

22.1º40º

35.2º

27.1º

25.1º36.7º

The Sima de los Huesos (SH) site has provided the largest collection of hominin crania in the fossil record, o�ering an unprecedented opportunity to perform a complete Forensic-Taphonomic study on a population from the Middle Pleistocene. The fractures found in seventeen crania from SH display a postmortem fracturation pattern, which occurred in the dry bone stage and is compatible with co-llective burial assemblages. Nevertheless, in addition to the postmortem fractures, eight crania also display some typical perimortem traumas. By using CT images we analyzed these fractures in detail. Interpersonal violence as a cause for the perimortem fractures can be con�rmed for one of the skulls, Cranium 17 and also probable for Cranium 5 and Cranium 11. For the rest of the crania, although other causes cannot be absolutely ruled out, the violence-related traumas are the most plausible sce-nario for the perimortem fractures. If this hypothesis is con�rmed, we could interpret that interperso-nal violence was a recurrent behavior in this population from the Middle Pleistocene.

ACKNOWLEGDGEMENTS REFERENCES

All scale bars = 1cm