On two cases of traumatic injuries on skulls from Azerbaijan (Antiquity period)

The article examines anthropological materials with traces of traumatic injuries from two necropolises (Khynysly and Mingachevir) of ancient Caucasian Albania from the territory of Azerbaijan. According to classifications used in forensic medicine and paleopathology, the injuries are referred to as perimortem traumas, committed on the eve of or at the moment of death. On the female skull from the jar burial no. 60 of the Khynysly necropolis, on the right side in the pterion area, a triangular defect measuring 15x18x20 mm with no signs of healing is noted. The injury on the skull of the woman from the jar burial no. 60 is a penetrating wound, and it can also be described as a "perforated" fracture. Traumatic injury resulted in death. On the artificially deformed female skull from catacomb burial no. 43, on the left side of the frontal bone, an oval-shaped defect measuring 7x11 mm and 6 mm deep was noted - a depressed compression fracture with no signs of healing. The traumatic injury in the first case (Khynysly) was inflicted by an object with a sharp end, and in the second case (Mingachevir) by a blunt one. The force of the blow in both cases was quite significant: in the first case, it caused severe damage to the bone, with multiple cracks and fractures originating from the affected area; in the second case, the bone was broken and pressed inward. The publication was the first to use data from modern computed tomography of the skull to study paleoanthropological materials from the territory of the republic, which confirmed and supplemented our understanding of the injuries found on the crania of women from the necropolises of Khynysly and Mingachevir. The article also presents data on perimortem injuries from the territory of the Near East during the ancient era in the form of a summary table, and also draws up a map of archaeological sites where such cases were discovered.