Antemortem trauma and survival in the late Middle Pleistocene human cranium from Maba, South China

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2011 Dec 6;108(49):19558-62. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1117113108. Epub 2011 Nov 21.

Abstract

Paleopathological assessment of the late Middle Pleistocene archaic human cranium from Maba, South China, has documented a right frontal squamous exocranially concave and ridged lesion with endocranial protrusion. Differential diagnosis indicates that it resulted from localized blunt force trauma, due to an accident or, more probably, interhuman aggression. As such it joins a small sample of pre-last glacial maximum Pleistocene human remains with probable evidence of humanly induced trauma. Its remodeled condition also indicates survival of a serious pathological condition, a circumstance that is increasingly documented for archaic and modern Homo through the Pleistocene.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • China
  • Diagnosis, Differential
  • Fossils*
  • Geography
  • Hominidae
  • Humans
  • Paleopathology / methods
  • Skull / pathology*
  • Survival*
  • Tomography, X-Ray Computed
  • Wounds and Injuries / diagnosis*
  • Wounds and Injuries / etiology