The Morthouse

(Source: ellamorte)

Third eye?

(Source: bigirondoor, via anaestheticroom)

This guy is all, “Let’s go SKULL SHOPPING!”

demonagerie:

Trogen, Kantonsbibliothek Appenzell Ausserrhoden, CM Ms. 13, f. 104r. Johann von Schwarzenberg: Memorial der Tugendt. c.1530/40. Death and the bone house.

(via centuriespast)

io9: The Awesomely Insane Heaven and Hell Nightclubs of 1890s Paris.

This photo has been in my queue for about a week now, and every time I open up my queue I stop and stare at it for longer than I probably should.

drfrankscali:

Paget’s disease/possible post-radiation osteosarcoma: (secondary osteosarcoma)

Yuck it up, guys.

A man laying in a coffin with a paper skeleton at the anti-superstition party. William C. Shrout, Chicago, 1940. Source: LIFE Photo Archive, hosted by Google.

drfrankscali:

Caption states: “Skull of a German killed by a brick during a riot in Baltimore, 1839. Note the trephination hole next to the site of injury.”
Trephination is a surgical process where a piece of skull is removed in order to relieve pressure on the brain. 

Dr. Frank Scali

(Source: drfrankscali.com, via anaestheticroom)

Interesting trepanation news last week: In Soria, Spain, two skulls have been exhumed showing evidence of trepanation. This is remarkable because they date from the 13th and 14th centuries C.E.—a time when trepanation was not usually done in the region.

From Science Daily:

The two skulls found in the cemetery in Soria belong to a male between 50 and 55 years and a woman between 45 and 50 years. The expert points out that “another interesting aspect of this finding is that trepanation in women is considered rare throughout all periods in history. In Spain, only 10% of those trepanned skulls found belonged to women.” [ … ]

The trepanation technique differs in each of the skulls. The skull of the male has been grooved with a sharp object and it is unknown whether trepanation occurred before or after his death. López Martínez confirms that “if the procedure took place whilst still alive, there is no sign of regeneration and the subject did not survive.”

In the woman, a scraping technique was used while she was still alive. According to the researchers, she survived for a “relatively long” amount of time afterwards given that the wound scarring is advanced.

This got me thinking about a documentary I saw a while back about a Brit named Amanda Feilding. Here’s a clip of her trepanning herself in front of a mirror. (Probably unnecessary warning: graphic.)

When I get migraines, I fantasize about self-trepanation. But only for about ten seconds.

Image: Detail from “The Extraction of the Stone of Madness”, a painting by Hieronymus Bosch depicting trepanation (c.1488-1516). Via Wikipedia.

drawingdetail:

William Edward Frost, Study of a Human Skeleton, 1829. Pencil, 52.5 x 36.3 cm.

(via vickyveiled)

Memento monkey?

(Source: ellamorte, via unnaturalist)

oldhollywood:

Catherine Deneuve in Vice and Virtue (1963, dir. Roger Vadim)

vintagegal:

Vampyr (1932)

This story is no longer news, but still fascinating.

Check out this slideshow on Discovery News about the pyramid-shaped pile of bodies—nearly 300 total, about 100 of them naturally mummified—found in a church crypt in the mountain town of Roccapelago, Italy. 

The History Blog also has an article about it:

The unusual preservation was due to a confluence of the consistently cold temperature and two slots in the church wall that kept the air constantly circulating. The vaulted crypt — used as an armory when the church was a fortress in the Middle Ages — was first used for traditional inhumation under ground, but the practice later changed to corpses being dropped from a trap door in the church.

Image: Photograph by Paolo Terzi/SBAER, via the History Blog.