The Morthouse

Image: A post-medieval skull with a coin in each eye orbit, excavated from Bethnal Green, London. Copyright AOC Archaeology.

Via Bones Don’t Lie: Coin in the Mouth or Shoe in the Coffin.

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.

Toothpick (possibly from England), ca. 1620, in the V&A Museum, London:

This toothpick is in the form of an enamelled gold arm that holds a curved sickle for picking teeth. At the other end it has a death’s-head finial (the decorative knob). Elaborately decorated toothpicks had a long tradition. In the Middle Ages they were often made from the claws of birds, especially the bittern, a long-legged water bird.

The toothpick shows an ingenious use of the popular contemporary imagery of death: the arm is surmounted by a skull and holds the sickle of Father Time. Once again the message is ‘Remember you must die’. 

This is the head of Porsmose Man, a skeletonized bog body found in 1946 near the town of Næstved in Denmark.

As fucked up as that arrowhead through the nasal cavity looks, that’s not even what killed him. Rather, he was killed by an arrow through the breastbone that pierced his aorta. The arrows were likely fired from above, at a close distance. Archaeologists suspect he was either surprised by his attackers or was the victim of an execution. In either case, he was thrown in a lake.

Image Source: Wikimedia Commons.

A young boy studying the human skull. Nina Leen, 1948. Source: LIFE Photo Archive, hosted by Google.

The Antikamnia Company 1901 by peacay on Flickr.

Another one. I couldn’t help it. For more, visit BibliOdyssey.

Just read this super-cool post on super-cool blog BibliOdyssey about the Antikamnia Chemical Company and their calendar images from the turn of the last century. There are a ton more images like the one above (most of them are less racist), all by pharmacist/printer/artist Louis Crucius.

Some background from BibliOdyssey:

While he was studying he worked in a pharmacy and made humorous sketches that were placed in the window of the store. A collection of these drawings was published in 1893 (‘Funny Bones’). He lectured in histology and anatomy and eventually came to be a Professor of Anatomy but died in 1898 from kidney tumours.

Although he gave most of his drawings away, Crucius sold a number of them to the Antikamnia (‘opposed to pain’) Chemical Company which had been established in St Louis in 1890. They produced antikamnia medicines containing the coal tar derivative, acetanilid, an anti-fever drug with pain relieving properties somewhat related to paracetamol, but which would be later shown to be a toxic compound not to mention addictive. Antikamnia was mixed with substances like codeine and quinine to enhance the pain relieving effects.

30 of the Crucius ‘dance of death’-inspired drawings were used to make 5 years worth of Antikamnia Chemical Company calendars - between 1897 and 1901. They had a fairly aggressive marketing campaign in which the calendars (aimed at the medical fraternity) as well as postcards and sample packs were distributed to doctors in the United States and overseas.

My great-great-grandfather was a pharmacist in Hardwick, Vermont, around this time. I wonder if he was familiar with these calendars.

Image: The Antikamnia Company 1901 (An Old Negro Melody) by peacay on Flickr.

sutured-infection:

Joseph Vimont and Engelman - “Skull of a Hydrocephalus Child”, from Traité de Phrénologie Humaine et Comparée, 1832

(via biomedicalephemera)

TREPANNED SKULL by dr pumpkinstein presents..tinned propoganda on Flickr.

rosary by Incognita Nom de Plume on Flickr:

Votive skull, Fontenelle Cemetery Caves, Naples, Italy

I’ve posted about this site before, but you can also read more (and see pictures) in Atlas Obscura’s article:

Like many ossuaries in Europe, the Cimitero Fontanelle began as an secondary burial ground when the church yards and crypts began to overflow. Unlike other ossuaries, the skulls of the anonymous dead were lovingly cared for, named, and then asked for prophesies of winning lotto numbers.

Healed cranial fracture by museumoflondon on Flickr:

Adult male cranium aged over 46 years old with a fracture to the left zygomatic bone.