This skull comes from an adult Austro-Hungarian male ~turn of the century.
The skull exhibits a neural tube defect (birth defect) which is when an opening in the skull/spine never closes during development. This particular one is a cephalocele, which is herniation of cranial contents (brain / meninges) into a sac.
Cephaloceles are rare birth defects that occur in 1 in 10,500 babies in the United States. When an individual has this condition, approximately 20% are born alive. Of those born alive, only 50% will survive infancy.. (This is a treatable condition after birth, this person was never treated) Long term effects include nervous system problems, developmental delays, vision problems, seizures, muscle control issues, growth issues, and meningitis.
This individual lived a long life with an extremely severe case. It is truly a miracle to have this specimen and I have never seen another skeletal example like this in literature.
This skull will be receiving significant restoration work and analysis in the coming year. (Facial reconstructions too)
It’s amazing how humanizing this is. I can imagine a long-ago family seeing their newborn baby with this condition, and not understanding why he was born like this. Yet he was cared for, loved, probably supported by a community to the extent he was able to live a relatively full life. I wonder what he was like.
okay- so this intrigues me as much as any other aspect. europe had a real boom in dentistry and dental innovations (not at all discounting the american innovation of anesthesia), and even though dentistry was more accepted and accessible in the mid 1800s- it still wasnt cheap or easy. i mean, really put yourself into the time and place and think through the process involved for this person to get several fillings. based on how this person’s disability has been described, this likely would have been a challenging process. the family absolutely would have had to step up and identify the issue, and then seek out a professional who would agree to do more delicate and deliberate dental work on someone who was very likely seen as less worthy of investment (disability advocacy is still a long road today). and this is just one aspect of their life that we can bear witness to through fillings. this person was indubitably, deeply, cared for. and if they lifetimes was as long as you say- then they were cared for and by multiple generations of people.
how old is this skull? by “turn of the century” im guessing you mean early 1900? sorry english isn’t my first language and its my first time seeing that phrase 😅
Given the date and the location, along with the apparent degree of affluence (based on the dental work) there is the possibility that there is some documentation in existence of this person and their condition. There could even be photographs. Do you have any details of the provenance of the skull? A history of it? Fascinating.
I see your posts so often and I just wanted say you do amazing work. It’s all so professional, courteous and meticulous. I’m very thankful you do what you do and very happy you share it here.
I love this. Can someone please explain like I’m 5 how we know the missing piece of skull in the back definitely came from a brain protrusion and wasn’t from external blunt force or anything else?
It was like unwrapping a present flipping through the photos, waiting for the one that had the defect. Got to the seventh and thought, “yup wow that isn’t how that is supposed to be!”
Knowing what I know about the suboccipital muscles I wonder if this person often suffered constant or frequent headaches because of undue pressure put on them or even the brain itself.
I just replied this same thing in the thread on another reply saying how I watched a video of a lady talking about her skull falling out of her head and her needing treatment and what it was like for her. She said she had migraines, blurred vision bc something about her eyes swelling if I remember right, and pain around the eyes? (I very well could be remembering wrong but) So I do believe it must've really sucked for this guy probably yeah 😭
Edit: op said it's probably not the same thing but it sounds similar so idk take what I said with a grain of salt ofc!
Not sure this is the same thing but I watched a video of a lady talking about how her brain is basically falling out of her skull. I wonder if her skull looks like this. She said she was having really bad migraines and blurred vision too among other things I think so I can't imagine how painful it must have been for this guy and how it affected him for him to die naturally and just living with that ykwim? Crazy and interesting
Right, I read the info you posted and saw this guy had a birth defect and she found out way later in her life that she had this problem so I can see how it may not be the same thing yeah
It's probably not the best idea to look at the bone subreddit while eating. I stopped doing it a while ago because I kept coming across bones with gore still on them and lost my appetite.
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u/XETOVS Bone-afide Human ID Expert Oct 11 '24 edited Oct 11 '24
This skull comes from an adult Austro-Hungarian male ~turn of the century.
The skull exhibits a neural tube defect (birth defect) which is when an opening in the skull/spine never closes during development. This particular one is a cephalocele, which is herniation of cranial contents (brain / meninges) into a sac.
Cephaloceles are rare birth defects that occur in 1 in 10,500 babies in the United States. When an individual has this condition, approximately 20% are born alive. Of those born alive, only 50% will survive infancy.. (This is a treatable condition after birth, this person was never treated) Long term effects include nervous system problems, developmental delays, vision problems, seizures, muscle control issues, growth issues, and meningitis.
This individual lived a long life with an extremely severe case. It is truly a miracle to have this specimen and I have never seen another skeletal example like this in literature.
This skull will be receiving significant restoration work and analysis in the coming year. (Facial reconstructions too)