Inconstant bones of the human skulls from scythians grave field near Kolomak village

Abstract

Summary: The research of the features of variant anatomy, as an integral part of paleoanthropological exploration, is an extremely important source of additional information about the anatomical structure of humans. Рatterns of variability and frequency distribution of discrete variational features in variant anatomy remain important. Cranioscopic variational (or non-metric) features - anatomical variations in the skeleton structure, registered according to the “presence-absence” principle, are an important source of information in studying the origin and ethnogenetic relationships of paleopopulations. These features include inconstant (additional) skull bones. By modern classification, there are three types of inconstant bones of the human skull: wormian (sutural) bones, fontanelle bones and insular bones. They have various causes: genetic factors, chronic high intracranial pressure, skull deformation, disturbances of the skull symmetry, different pathological processes, etc. The purpose of the work was to research the variant anatomy of inconstant bones of the human skull. The objective to research is the variant anatomy of inconstant skull bones of the human on the anthropological materials from the Scythian grave field. It located near Kolomak village in the Kharkiv region and dates back to IX – IV century BC. The 88 skulls of adult persons has been researched. The inconstant additional bones of skull were present in the structures of 16 skulls out of 88 (18.1%). Results. The sutural (wormian) bones were present in 12 skulls (13.6%), fontanelle bones – in 6 skulls (6.8%), insular bones were absent. In the anatomical structures of 10 skulls (11.4%) were only wormian bones, in 4 skulls (4.5%) were only fontanelle bones, in the structures of 2 skulls (2.3%) were combination of sutural and fontanelle additional bones. Often the inconstant bones were located in several sutures at the same time. The most common sutural bones were lambdoid suture bones - 9 skulls (10.2%). The inconstant bones of the coronal suture and sagittal suture were found in 2 skulls (2.3%). The additional bones of the occipital-mastoid, parietal-mastoid and squamosal sutures were absent on the examined osteological materials. The fontanelle bones most often located at the place of the occipital fontanellele and they were present in 4 skulls (4.5%). The additional fontanelle bones of the mastoid fontanellele were found in 2 skulls (2.3%). The frontal fontanelle bone was in 1 skull (1.1%). The additional fontanelle bones of the sphenoid fontanellele and interparietal bones were not found in the researched skulls. Conclusion. It is interesting to consider the case of combination in one skull a large inconstant bone of the sagittal suture with complete metopic (frontal) suture and occipital bone of sufficiently large size. The results of the research expanded and updated the existing data on the variant anatomy of inconstant cranial bones. Also, the results obtained maybe required in the further research of individual variability in the structure of the human’s skull.