Suprainion lesion in a female individual from central Argentina (Cordoba province)

SALEGA, SOLEDAD; FABRA, MARIANA

Evora

Congreso; 7th Portuguese Conference on Paleopathology; 2021

The suprainion lesion is a depression in the occipital bone, with bone thinning and variable shape and size, that has been commonly associated to cultural cranial deformation. Since this pathology has been rarely reported in southern South America, the aim of this work is to present an archaeological case from central Argentina dated in 533 ± 42 years 14C BP. The individual is a middle adult (33-42 years of age) female that displayed a thinned region in the occipital of 65mm long by 45mm wide, with a small oval perforation of the tissue of 6mm long by 2.5mm, with regular and rounded edges. For the paleopathological analysis, first the location and distribution of the abnormality were identified in the bone. Second, radiographic examination of the skull was performed. Finally, a differential diagnosis was attempted, following the classification of lesions in the skull (Kaufman et al. 1997; Verano 2016). We suggest that the analyzed individual displayed a suprainion lesion, which would be a result of the process of cranial deformation -such as the use of a deforming apparatus- that could have compressed the occipital and caused an ischemic ulceration of the surrounding soft tissue. Consequently, a co-ocurrent osteomyelitis cannot be discarded.