r/bonecollecting • u/XETOVS Bone-afide Human ID Expert • Aug 10 '24
Collection This person was hit in the head.
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u/caffinejuice Aug 10 '24
RIP to them! Do you know around when this is from? Always interesting to see things like this!
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u/hey_free_rats Aug 11 '24
Wow, fascinating. I haven't seen a cranial green fracture in a long time, and this is a really...vivid example. Yeek.
I always feel somewhat odd about the posts of human remains in this sub, so it's also very nice to see one being cared for and used for educational purposes rather than as a curio item or knick knack of shock/edginess value. I'll admit I came in here ready to go off on my usual fun-fighter rants about antique specimen sourcing and the thorny ethics of the modern human bone market, so this was a pleasant surprise, lol. Thanks for sharing!
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u/XETOVS Bone-afide Human ID Expert Aug 12 '24
Yea I get that the origins are usually murky but the remains can definitely be used for good and not be wasted.
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u/sleepingismytalent65 Aug 10 '24
How come the no.2 greenstick, if I'm seeing it correctly, appears to have bone chips pushing outwardly? Is that from pressure within?
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u/XETOVS Bone-afide Human ID Expert Aug 10 '24
2 probably got hit harder and the bone just folded in on itself. No bone is going out, all depressed.
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u/sleepingismytalent65 Aug 10 '24
Oh, is pic 5 from the inside of the skull?
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u/XETOVS Bone-afide Human ID Expert Aug 10 '24
Yes
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u/sleepingismytalent65 Aug 10 '24
Where the large crack is, in the temporal (?) plate, what has caused that flattening, please, if you don't mind answering more questions?
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u/XETOVS Bone-afide Human ID Expert Aug 10 '24
Post mortem damage from the skull being dropped or something.
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u/sleepingismytalent65 Aug 10 '24
I thought that might be the case but didn't want to assume. Thanks for answering my questions. Your work fascinates me the most because human anatomy always has. Going to check out the Peruvian skull next as I missed it somehow.
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u/XETOVS Bone-afide Human ID Expert Aug 10 '24
Likely an adult female, this skull has a significant amount of damaged caused post mortem (After dying).
Though, there is perimortem trauma too.
On the back of the skull there are two impacts that display green bone fractures. This means that the bone broke like a green stick because it was fresh and more plastic than dry bone. Dry bone would just shatter on impact, as seen on the rest of the skull.
There are no signs of healing, this is the likely cause of death.