Archaeologists excavating a cemetery full of medieval knights in Spain found the body of a middle-aged man with two stab wounds to the head and a blow to the knee, suggesting he died in battle. But when they looked closely at its skeleton, they were struck by its unusually long and narrow head, which is thought to be caused by a genetic disorder that is usually fatal in childhood.
“I was very surprised,” Carme Lisek, a biological anthropologist at Spain’s Rovira y Virgili University, told Live Science in an email. “I’ve never seen a skull like this before, especially not of a knight.”
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When archaeologists excavated the Zorita de los Canes cemetery between 2014 and 2019, they discovered dozens of human remains, including one of a woman, with trauma suggesting injuries from violent incidents or combat. But one person stood out among the battered skeletons because it had a “very elongated skull,” the researchers wrote in the study.
The man was buried in a wooden coffin, but by the time it was excavated, much of it had collapsed, and many of his bones had decayed over the centuries. Close examination of his skeleton revealed that he was in his mid-to-late 40s at the time of death, and muscle markers on his bones indicated he was an active individual. But researchers noticed that three of the sutures in his skull (joints between the skulls) had closed prematurely, leaving his head misshapen.
When a baby is born, the skull is essentially small plates connected by fibrous joints called sutures. This flexibility allows the baby to pass through the birth canal and allows the baby’s brain chambers to grow. Most cranial sutures do not fuse until you are in your early 20s. If one or more sutures fuse prematurely, a condition called craniosynostosis can occur, causing problems with the growth of the skull and brain. Surgery can now be performed to relieve pressure on the brain caused by craniosynostosis, which can lead to brain damage and death, but this type of medical intervention was not available in the Middle Ages.
According to researchers, the global prevalence of craniosynostosis is approximately 1 in 2,500 people, and many cases are the result of a genetic mutation. One of the most common genetic mutations causes multiple cranial sutures to fuse prematurely, causing Crouzon syndrome. This can also cause eyes that are wide and prominent. small chin. and hearing loss. However, most people with this syndrome have normal cognitive function.
Because only the medieval knight’s skull was affected and the rest of his skeleton was unaffected, researchers believe he may have suffered from Crouzon syndrome. This is a rare find among archaeological skeletons.
“Most of the recorded cases are in children, especially in the Middle Ages,” the researchers wrote. “Given the potential complications, it is particularly noteworthy that this individual survived to adulthood without surgical intervention.”
However, researchers cautioned that further genetic analysis is needed to prove that the man had Crouzon syndrome.
Yet, this medieval man apparently survived and thrived despite a potentially life-threatening genetic disease. The researchers wrote that his bones “show signs of an active lifestyle that may be consistent with that of a warrior” and that a stab wound to the head “suggests that he may have died in combat.”
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