Eric Anderson

This research examines Burial 179, possible adult male (70% complete) from the site of Ilok in Croatia (dated to the 14-16th centuries) to determine the possible amount of treatment that would have been needed and provided after exposure to a cranial trauma. We employed the Index of Care as our model. This individual was chosen because it exhibited a healed cranial depression fracture (CDF) on the superior portion of the frontal bone. The possible effects from the CDF trauma are explored by looking into modern medical literature on cranial trauma and frontal lobe brain damage (likely present based on the location of the CDF). Given the signs of healing present, it is likely the individual received some medical care, both at the time of the injury and afterward. Treatment for cranial trauma today can be diagnosed and treated with relative success depending on the severity. Without the medical knowledge we have today, what type of treatment could have been possible during the late medieval period? Contemporaneous treatments were found by examining texts detailing medical interventions that may have been available between the 14th and 16th centuries. Cranial trauma is specifically addressed by
numerous sources, treatments ranged from surgery, bandages with spider webs, plastering, honey, wine to leaving the wound open with no treatment.