engleski

Child's skull from 8th century. Down's or battered child syndrome

A case of a reasonably well preserved skull of a child of unknown age from an early medieval Croatian graveyard Naklice Grebčine dated to the 9th century AD. It was found in a multiple inhumation grave as one of 5 skeletons burried in it. DNA testing showed female sex and that the child's mother was in the same grave. The skull had two subperiostal haematomas on the frontal bone, which were confirmed by X-rays and CT, and had several oposing indicators of age (large fontanelle still open, erupted M1). It also had traces of alveolar resorption and paradentosis that combined gave the image of scurvy. In both eye socets, cribra orbitalia was found and the back of the skull was 76% wider than the front which was unusual for the analyzed population (Naklice-Grebčine, Ostrovica-Greblje and Svećurje sites). Alltogether, two assumptions were formulated. The first one was „Down's syndrome“ and the second „Battered child syndrome“.

skull; Down syndrome; scurvy; anemia; battered child syndrome

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