A Roman-period cranial tumor case from Sima de Marcenejas

ClassiCult — Fri, 22 Sep 2023 20:48:47 +0000

A Roman-period cranial tumor case from Sima de Marcenejas

The CENIEH publishes a study of a case of meningioma in a Roman-period cranium. Using micro-computed tomography, it was possible to obtain hundreds of X-ray images to create a 3D model and visualize the interior of the cranium in detail.

A Roman-period cranial tumor case: the skull from the Marcenejas cave before its restoration/Pilar Fernández Colón

A multidisciplinary team at the Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH) has published a paper in the journal Virtual Archaeology Review on a Roman-period meningioma (cranial tumor) in the Iberian Peninsula. The finding of this skull, together with signs of cranial lesions in the same individual, offers new data about the health of past populations.

The cranium was discovered during a caving expedition to the Sima de Marcenejas, in Lastras de Teza (Burgos), thanks to the collaboration of the caving groups Gaem, Takomano, Geoda, Flash, and A.E.Get, which played a fundamental role in its recovery.

It was then carried to the CENIEH, where it was subjected to a meticulous process by the team at the Conservation and Restoration Laboratory. After all this work, it was possible to identify it as belonging to an adult male individual who lives in the final centuries of the Roman Empire.

The main objective of this investigation was to understand the possible diseases that affected this person during life. Cutting-edge techniques such as micro-computed tomography (MicroCT) were used to do this, making it possible to obtain hundreds of X-ray images to create a 3D model and visualize the interior of the cranium in detail.

Virtual autopsy

Essentially, micro-computed tomography allows conducting a sort of “virtual autopsy” on the individual, and this revealed the presence of four cranial lesions, all of antemortem origin, that is, injuries showing evidence of curing processes, indicating that they happened while the individual was alive.

Of the four lesions identified, three of them were on the outside of the skull, and show evidence compatible with injuries produced intentionally. This is because they are on the top of the head, which is not typical for lesions caused by accidents such as falls.

Moreover, two of them show characteristics consistent with wounds inflicted by sharp and blunt objects. This raises the possibility that they were the result of violent attempts against this individual’s life.

Intracranial lesion

The fourth lesion is inside the skull. It is characterized by being a depression of circular morphology which had eliminated part of the bone holding it.

After studying the characteristics of the lesion and conducting a comparative analysis with different pathologies such as infections, metabolic or genetic diseases, or a neoplasia, the conclusion was reached that it was probably caused by a tumor inside the skull, a possible meningioma. This meningioma is the first case of this condition for these chronologies in the Iberian Peninsula, which is a region with few records of these tumors from antiquity.

“What is interesting about this finding is that it offers a window onto the health of past populations, and raises fundamental questions for us about the ability of individuals to survive these conditions, and their quality of life thereafter”, says Daniel Rodríguez-Iglesias, lead author of this paper.

A Roman-period cranial tumor case from Sima de Marcenejas

Press release from Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana – CENIEH

L'articolo A Roman-period cranial tumor case from Sima de Marcenejas proviene da Classicult.

Amud 9 is shown to be a Neandertal woman weighing 60 kg who lived in the Late Pleistocene

ClassiCult — Sat, 25 Jul 2020 14:52:32 +0000

Amud 9 is shown to be a Neandertal woman weighing 60 kg who lived in the Late Pleistocene

The CENIEH researcher Adrián Pablos co-leads a paper on the morphology of a foot found at Amud Cave in Israel, establishing that this fossil known as Amud 9 can be taxonomically attributed as Neandertal, and obtaining this individual’s sex, weight and height.

Fósiles de Amud 9. Credits: Osborjn M. Pearson y Adrián Pablos

Adrián Pablos, a scientist at the Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH), co-leads a paper published in PaleoAnthropology, the official journal of the PaleoAnthropology Society, looking at the morphology and anatomy of a partial foot recovered over 25 years ago at Amud Cave (Israel), which confirms that the individual Amud 9 was a Neandertal woman from the Late Pleistocene, with a stature of some 160-166 cm and weight of 60 kg.

Over the course of several excavations conducted in the twentieth century at Amud Cave, remains of at least 15 Neandertals were found. A systematic and detailed study of one of these individuals, Amud 9, has found that the fossil possesses the traits usually associated with Neanderthals in the different elements of the foot, tarsals, metatarsals and phalanges, which differ from those of modern humans, both fossil and recent.

“Most of these traits are related to the typical, exceptional robustness of the postcranial skeleton, that is, from the neck down, observed in the majority of Neandertals”, explains Pablos.

Sex, weight and height

Sex, weight and height estimates in fossil populations are normally based on the dimensions of the large leg bones. However, in the case of Amud 9, only a fragment of tibia, the talus or ankle bone, one metatarsal or instep bone, and several phalanges are conserved.

As no long leg bones have been found, the researchers applied different mathematical estimates based upon the foot bones, thus obtaining an approximation to important paleobiological parameters.

“Knowing parameters such as the body size and sex of this individual helps us learn a bit more about what the Neandertals were like”, he says.

The participants in this paper, entitled A partial Neandertal foot from the Late Middle Paleolithic of Amud Cave, Israel, are researchers from Spain (the CENIEH), the United States (University of New Mexico and Arizona State University), and Israel (Tel Aviv University and The Hebrew University of Jerusalem).

Full bibliographic information

Pearson, O.M., Pablos, A., Rak, Y., Hovers, E., 2020. A partial Neandertal foot from the Late Middle Paleolithic of Amud cave, Israel. PaleoAnthropology 2020, 98-125. http://paleoanthro.org/media/journal/content/PA20200098.pdf.

Press release from CENIEH

L'articolo Amud 9 is shown to be a Neandertal woman weighing 60 kg who lived in the Late Pleistocene proviene da Classicult.

Adrián Pablos Archivi - Classicult

A Roman-period cranial tumor case from Sima de Marcenejas

Amud 9 is shown to be a Neandertal woman weighing 60 kg who lived in the Late Pleistocene

Amud 9 is shown to be a Neandertal woman weighing 60 kg who lived in the Late Pleistocene

Full bibliographic information