Earliest cranio-encephalic trauma from the Levantine Middle Palaeolithic: 3D reappraisal of the Qafzeh 11 skull, consequences of pediatric brain damage on individual life condition and social care

Hélène Coqueugniot; Olivier Dutour; Baruch Arensburg; Henri Duday; Bernard Vandermeersch; Anne-Marie Tillier

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0102822

Earliest cranio-encephalic trauma from the Levantine Middle Palaeolithic: 3D reappraisal of the Qafzeh 11 skull, consequences of pediatric brain damage on individual life condition and social care

PLoS One. 2014 Jul 23;9(7):e102822. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0102822. eCollection 2014.

Authors

Hélène Coqueugniot¹, Olivier Dutour², Baruch Arensburg³, Henri Duday⁴, Bernard Vandermeersch⁵, Anne-Marie Tillier⁶

Affiliations

¹ Unité Mixte de Recherche 5199 - De la Préhistoire à l'Actuel: Culture, Environnement et Anthropologie (PACEA), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) - Université de Bordeaux, Pessac, France; Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany.
² Unité Mixte de Recherche 5199 - De la Préhistoire à l'Actuel: Culture, Environnement et Anthropologie (PACEA), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) - Université de Bordeaux, Pessac, France; Laboratoire d'Anthropologie biologique Paul Broca, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (EPHE), Paris, France; Department of Anthropology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.
³ Department of Anatomy and Anthropology, Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv, Israel.
⁴ Unité Mixte de Recherche 5199 - De la Préhistoire à l'Actuel: Culture, Environnement et Anthropologie (PACEA), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) - Université de Bordeaux, Pessac, France; Laboratoire d'Anthropologie biologique Paul Broca, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (EPHE), Paris, France.
⁵ Unité Mixte de Recherche 5199 - De la Préhistoire à l'Actuel: Culture, Environnement et Anthropologie (PACEA), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) - Université de Bordeaux, Pessac, France.
⁶ Unité Mixte de Recherche 5199 - De la Préhistoire à l'Actuel: Culture, Environnement et Anthropologie (PACEA), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) - Université de Bordeaux, Pessac, France; Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America.

Abstract

The Qafzeh site (Lower Galilee, Israel) has yielded the largest Levantine hominin collection from Middle Palaeolithic layers which were dated to circa 90-100 kyrs BP or to marine isotope stage 5b-c. Within the hominin sample, Qafzeh 11, circa 12-13 yrs old at death, presents a skull lesion previously attributed to a healed trauma. Three dimensional imaging methods allowed us to better explore this lesion which appeared as being a frontal bone depressed fracture, associated with brain damage. Furthermore the endocranial volume, smaller than expected for dental age, supports the hypothesis of a growth delay due to traumatic brain injury. This trauma did not affect the typical human brain morphology pattern of the right frontal and left occipital petalia. It is highly probable that this young individual suffered from personality and neurological troubles directly related to focal cerebral damage. Interestingly this young individual benefited of a unique funerary practice among the south-western Asian burials dated to Middle Palaeolithic.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Brain Injuries / pathology*
Child
Fossils*
Fractures, Bone / pathology
Growth Disorders / pathology
Humans
Imaging, Three-Dimensional
Israel
Paleopathology / methods*
Skull / pathology*

Grants and funding

This research has been financially supported by the Irene Levi Sala Care Archaeological Foundation (http://prehistory.org.il/?page_id=894). The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.