Roentgencraniometric analysis of skulls of mammoth hunters from Dolní Vestonice

The authors assessed roentgenometrically Rank-Xerox images of four well-preserved skulls of gravettian mammoth hunters from Dolní Vestonice (26,000 years ago). The basic structure of the face expressed from lateral images in the shape of a pentagon differs from contemporary and historical populations. As these hunters had a markedly longer mandibular body but not a longer mandibular branch, the craniogram (pentagon) is broad in an anteroposterior direction, while in the contemporary population it is narrower and longer in a vertical direction. With the exception of skull DV XIV, which has a marked posteriorotation of the face, the mandible of the hunters is characterized by definite protrusion, a smaller gonial angle and less steepness of the mandibular body (hypodivergent vertical intermaxillary relations). The maxilla protrudes markedly in DV XIII with a consequently more convex profile and impaired sagittal intermaxillary relations (second skeletal class). In the other skulls the convexity of the face and sagittal intermaxillary relations are consistent with contemporary conditions. In the dental analysis only proclination of the upper incisors in two of three assembled skulls is obvious.