Aboriginal trephination: case from southern New England?

Area of Science:

• Paleopathology
• North American Archaeology
• Bioarchaeology

Background:

• Trepanation, a surgical intervention involving cranial perforation, is a rare practice observed in ancient human populations globally.
• Documented cases of trepanation among North American Indigenous peoples are exceptionally scarce, making each discovery significant.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze a unique cranial anomaly found on a young adult male Amerind skull from southern Connecticut.
• To investigate the possibility of deliberate antemortem trephination in this specific specimen.

Main Methods:

• Macroscopic examination of the skull for pathological and surgical evidence.
• Assessment of the elliptical anomaly near the bregma for signs of healing (cicatrization).
• Comparative analysis with known cases of ancient trephination.

Main Results:

• The skull exhibits a largely cicatrized elliptical anomaly near the bregma.
• Evidence suggests the anomaly may be the result of deliberate antemortem trephination, likely of the scraping type.
• This case represents one of fewer than twenty reported instances of potential Indigenous North American trephination.

Conclusions:

• The analyzed skull provides rare evidence of potential prehistoric cranial surgery among Indigenous populations in coastal southern Connecticut.
• This finding contributes to the limited dataset on trepanation practices in North America, highlighting regional variations and the skill involved.