A woman from 300 B.C. was observed to have a facedown burial, which could signify that she may have endured a particular disease. On top of this, a hole that was nail-shaped was observed in the woman's skull. Live Science reports that this is thought to have been a way to prevent the spread of epilepsy.
Facedown Burial and Nail-Shaped Hole in Skull
The study is set to be included in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports this April.
While epilepsy is known to not be transmissible, during the time the woman died, the thought was that the condition that led to her death may be a concern for the whole community. This was stated by co-author Dario D'Orlando, who is a historian and archaeologist at the University of Cagliari.
This peculiar burial was spotted at a tomb within the Necropolis of Monte Luna. This area is situated around 20 miles north of Cagliari and in the southern areas of Sardinia.
The burial area was used by Punic individuals at the end of 600 B.C. It was continually used up until 200 B.C.
While the necropolis was unearthed during the 1970s, the recent study is based on new analyses of the skeletal remains and on snaps of the tomb. The pottery found within the tomb suggests that the woman may have been buried within the last ten years of 300 B.C. or in the first decades of 200 B.C. This was a period when Punic center Sardinia got governed by the Romans since the end of the war with Carthage, which was the First Punic War that happened from 264 B.C. until 241 B.C.
Recent analysis of the skeletal remains also revealed that the woman was 18 to 22 years old when she passed away. It also revealed that the woman's skull may have endured trauma when she died. The researchers observed evidence of two kinds of trauma, namely, blunt-force trauma, which may have taken place during an unprecedented fall, and an injury of sharp force, which is demonstrated by the hole in her skull that aligns with the effects of the prehistoric nails of the Romans. These nails were spotted across various archaeological sites within Sardinia.
According to D'Orlando, the nail injury may have been inflicted in order to stop her epilepsy from spreading.
Prehistoric Beliefs About Epilepsy
According to the Verve Times, this treatment could have been grounded in ancient Greek beliefs that certain illnesses were due to bad air or miasma. This remedy was also described in 100 A.D. by Gaius Plinis Secundus, a natural historian and Roman general back then who is also referred to as Pliny the Elder. He recommended that body parts be nailed after death due to epileptic seizures. This was done in order to prevent the condition from spreading.
D'Orlando suggests that the skull-nailing practice and odd burial may be due to how Rome introduced new ideas to Sardinia back then. However, archaeologist Peter van Dommelen, who did not participate in the study, stated that Sardinian culture preserved its Punic traditions even when the Romans took over. He notes that, culturally speaking, it is unnecessary to examine the Roman traditions since people were mainly guided by their Punic cultures.
Van Dommelen has not heard of other burials in Sardinia that are similar to this one. Nevertheless, he expresses how interesting it is and that it aligns with a more general pattern that can be observed throughout various cultures and across the globe.
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