Anthropological and Paleopathological Analysis of the three Llullaillaco child mummies using 3D visualizations from CT-scans

VILLA, CHIARA; PREVIGLIANO, CARLOS ; CERUTI, CONSTANZA; ARIAS ARAOZ, FACUNDO; GONZALEZ DIEZ. JOSEFINA

Bolzano

Congreso; 2nd Bolzano Mummy Congress; 2011

The age at death, nutritional conditions, cause of death and preservation state of the three child mummies from Mont Llullaillaco had previously been investigated using conventional radiographs and visual inspection of CT-scans slices. However, the peculiar "seat-flexed" position of all mummies limited the accuracy of these analyses due to radiographic superposition (Previgliano et al., 2003). We reanalyzed the existing CT-scan dataset, segmenting the various tissues and obtain highly detailed 3D visualizations of the anatomical parts. This study presents the results of a new biological anthropological and paleopathological analysis performed using 3D visualizations from CT-scans of the mummies. Age estimation from the long bones is performed using 3D visualizations, which makes it possible to isolate a single bone and to measure it with high accuracy. The state of fusion in different bones will also be evaluated. The 3D visualization of the dental root formation will allow combining the previous age estimates based on the method of Nolla (1960) with the method of Ubelaker (1989) frequently used in physical anthropology. The internal organs are known from the previous investigations to have undergone a volumetric reduction due to the loss of liquids by dehydration; in this study we estimate the volume loss for the brain in a quantitative way. A 3D visualization of the crania is performed to better evaluate the cranial deformations of cultural significance as reported in the first analysis.