New bioarchaeological and paleopathological findings about the mummified subadult from Gruta del Indio site (San Rafael, Mendoza, Argentina).

RODRÍGUEZ, P.; ARANDA, C.; LUNA. LEANDRO; BALLARINI, L.

Zagreb

Congreso; 22nd European Meeting of the Paleopathology Association; 2018

Paleopathology Association

The results of the bioarchaeological and paleopathological analysis of a mummified subadult individual from the archeological site named Gruta del Indio (near San Rafael city, Southern Mendoza province, Argentina), dated 1910 ± 60 years BP, are presented. The body was wrapped in a complex package composed of sewing leather, and had been deposited on a fibrous vegetable mattress. A kind of cap was recovered completely covering the head. The only previous systematic research was fulfilled during the decade of 1970, when many current bioarchaeological techniques had not been yet developed. That research stated that the individual was a stillborn died as a result of a cranial trauma derived from the narrowness of the pelvis of the mother, which caused an overlapping of the parietals by compression. On January 2016, the mummy was translated to the Medical Diagnostic Institute of San Rafael, where a radiographic and tomographic study was carried out in order to estimate the sex and the age-at-death of the individual, and toidentify the nature of the traumatic lesions. Age estimation was performed considering multiple methods and indicators; dental calcification, long bone lengths and the appearance of the centers of ossification were recorded. The data obtained indicate that this individual lived about 3 months after birth. Regrettably, it was not possible to accurately estimate sex because the morphological features of the ilia and the mandible could not be clearly assessed. Multiple incomplete fractures were detected in different bones of the skull (mainly affecting parietals, temporals and the occipital), which are compatible with a perimortem trauma, probably the cause of death of the individual.