Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 45 (2) 2017   DOI: 10.17746/1563-0110.2017.45.2.149-157

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Cranial Injuries in the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age Population
of the Shnogh River Basin, Armenia

A.Y. Khudaverdyan and S.G. Hobosyan

Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia, Charentsa 15, Yerevan, 0025, Armenia

Excavations at Late Bronze and Early Iron Age cemeteries in the Lori Region of Armenia have yielded 123 human skeletons. In this study, we describe traumatic injuries to crania from the Shnogh River basin, dating to 1300–1000 BC, with a view to reconstructing aspects of social and natural environment. The occurrence of traumas is moderately high (15.6–23.7 %) and varies between groups. Frequency of cranial trauma in males was higher than in contemporaneous populations of the Sevan Basin and the Shirak Plain, but it is unlikely to have resulted from warfare. We describe one case of decapitation. Five crania evidence surgical intervention, and three of them show healing.

Keywords: Armenia, Late Bronze Age, Early Iron Age, cranial traumas, trepanation.