One accident too many?

How did he die? This is a frequent question asked of bioarchaeologists when examining skeletal remains and in most cases the answer eludes us. Perhaps a more plausible question would be ‘how did he live?’ but even then there are limitations to the interpretation of trauma and disease in ancient skeletal remains, particularly episodes of trauma. Healed traumatic lesions, in addition to dental disease and osteoarthritis, are the most frequently observed pathological lesions in ancient skeletal remains, both human and animal. Most individuals who suffered from injury exhibit one or two lesions (fracture, dislocation, or muscle pull), but occasionally an individual is excavated whose skeletal remains are riddled with trauma, which offers an intriguing case study. One method used by bioarchaeologists to interpret ancient trauma is clinical analogy, because clinicians have the luxury of being able to interview their patients to elicit the cause of their injuries. Bioarchaeologists are not so fortunate and therefore must rely on medical literature, research, and protocols to aid in their descriptions and interpretations of trauma. Bioarchaeologists also use data retrieved from anatomical skeletal collections with known histories. For example, the skeletons of two North American males, known to have engaged in boxing, exhibited an almost identical accumulation of injuries, 1 which generate a set of criteria that might identify ancient people who participated in interpersonal conflicts. While their isolated injuries could not be attributed solely to combat, with the exception of the fractured cheek, nose and ulna fractures, the collection of lesions suggests an aggregate of injuries from boxing or similar activity over a lifetime. Other researchers 2 observed a similar set of injuries among four archaeological skeletons, and, although violence through military conflict was strongly indicated, both scholars cautioned that such an interpretation was purely hypothetical. This study briefly describes the injuries observed on the skeletal remains of a man who lived during the Kerma Period in ancient Sudan and offers explanations for the discrete injuries based on parallels discussed in clinical literature, particularly literature from non-industrialised regions.