Pathology of cribra orbitalia Among the Medieval Mordvins of Moksha Basin

Abstract

The pathology cribra orbitalia is localized on the upper orbital wall of the human skull. The nature of this pathology is debatable. At the present time, there are debate about the cause for the formation of cribra orbitalia in paleopathological science. One of the reasons that this issue has been so complicated is that the pathology under study is identified visually on skulls that have been completely cleared of soft tissue. At the same time, in living or recently deceased people, cribra orbitalia can detected only on tomograms. Comparison of the results of tomography and visual examination is problematic. Necessary to study tomograms of skulls with reliably recorded cribra orbitalia for solving the scientific problem. This direction of research work will allow us to identify pathology on tomograms in more detail. It will make it possible to determine the etiology of this pathology. The computed tomography of four skulls from the archaeological sites of the medieval Mordvins-Mokshas from the Upper Moksha region - Bednodemyanovsky and Karmaleysky burial grounds was carried to decide this problem. The degree of development of the pathology on different skulls was different.