A magyarországi 10–11. századi sebészi trepanációk összehasonlító vizsgálata a validált oszteoarcheológiai adatok tükrében

Abstract

Trepanations are divided into three groups in the Eastern European osteological practice: surgical, cultical and symbolic trepanations. Classical surgical interventions are conducted on living subjects, and all three layers of the cranial vault are removed. My examinations were conducted in skeletal series with skulls bearing surgical trepanations that derive from the Conquest Period and the early Árpádian Age (9–11th c. CE). I examined all cases applying a unified protocol for comparability, and I also made efforts to verify the dating and the trepanation diagnosis of each possible case. This type of work creating a cadastre of 10–11th century trepanations is unprecedented in the Hungarian osteological practice. In 51 cases, the earlier diagnosis of trepanation was verified. I examined all the available remains of each affected individuals, and also investigated 5 more individuals of the same sex and similar age-at-death in each series for comparison. Instead of the usual nosology-based palaeopathological diagnostical process, I observed types of lesion in the endocranial and ectocranial surfaces, and made statistical comparison between the trepanned and non-trepanned samples. The work hypothesis was that trepanations were conducted for real therapeutic reasons. If pathological features are more frequent among individuals with trepanations than their peers, it indirectly implies that trepanation might have been applied as a therapeutic measure in most cases and was not a ritual intervention as often hypothesized elsewhere. Beside the comparative work, we also put forward a change in nomenclature; we wish to introduce the word ‘cranioglyph’ instead of ‘symbolic trepanation’, since the latter tends to be confused with other interventions in the Western practice. In the future, we wish to carry on the comparative approach to postcranial elements and activity-related changes to further elucidate the indication of these ancient surgical techniques.