Warriors of great Moravia: the interpretation of cranial injuries from the middle ages in the context of archaeological data (Pohansko near Břeclav)
Abstract
The aim of this study is to describe the pattern of cranial injuries at the Slavic site Pohansko near Břeclav (from the 6th to the first half of the 10th century) and try to identify differences between social ranks. 39 (11%) of the total sample of 360 individuals exhibit at least one cranial injury. Altogether 51 cranial injuries were found.
In 7 cases, the individual suffered more than one cranial injury; all individuals were males. A comparison of lower and higher social ranks did not show any statistically significant differences.
Cranial injuries in our sample were mainly comprised of non-lethal and healed nasal fractures in males. Statistically significant differences between males and females in the occurence of non-healed cranial injuries were found.
All non-healed cranial injuries occurred among males and most often in the age group between 30 and 39 years of age, which supports the presumption that injured males were mostly warriors in their productive age.