New Evidence of Prehistoric Neurosurgery in Italy: The Case of Castello Del Tartaro.

Archaeological evidence of trepanation during the European Bronze Age is numerous and testifies a wide application of neurosurgical practices during prehistory. In some particular cases, trepanation may be associated with other peculiar evidence concerning funerary practices. The aim of this paper is to present the case of a woman from the Recent Bronze Age site of Castello del Tartaro (Verona, Italy), who was buried in a prone position and whose skeletal remains presented evidence of probable frontal trepanation. The association between a deviant burial and trepanation could be of interest in better understanding the history and perception of neurosurgical practices during prehistory.

Violence in the Early Bronze Age. Diagnosis of skull lesions using anthropological, taphonomic and scanning electron microscopy techniques.

In this paper we present the study of a skull belonging to a young male from the Italian Bronze Age showing three perimortem injuries on the frontal and parietal bones; the peculiarity of the frontal injury is represented by its singular shape, which may be indicative of the weapon that caused the lesion. The aim of the present study is to examine the traumatic evidence in relation to possible etiological factors, in order to attempt to establish if the lesion occurred peri or post-mortem, and to evaluate if these traumatic injuries could be interpreted as an evidence of interpersonal violence, by combining anthropological, taphonomic and ESEM investigations. The combination of multidisciplinary methods of study can provide important new insights into inter-personal violence.