Cranial trauma in Paleolithic Europe: On case studies, comparative approaches, and the "highly traumatised Neanderthal“
Abstract
Traumatic injuries in human skeletal remains bear witness to accidents, risky activities, or conflicts, providing crucial insights into past human lifestyles and behavior. This talk will review past and current understandings of the patterns and rates of traumatic injuries in Neanderthals and address the challenges of identifying traumatic lesions and estimating trauma prevalence from incompletely preserved skeletal samples, such as those from the fossil record. Our research on cranial trauma prevalence in Neanderthals and Upper Paleolithic humans challenges previous assumptions of exceptionally high trauma rates in Neanderthals. Instead, we find variations in age-related cranial trauma rates, suggesting possible differences in the age of trauma acquisition or mortality risk following injury.
Note: this is an out of semester schedule paper
About the Presenter
Judith Beier is a biological anthropologist and archaeologist interested in Paleolithic hunter-gatherers' lifestyles, behaviors, injuries, mortality, and demography. She completed a PhD in Archaeological Sciences and Human Evolution at the University of Tübingen, Germany, in 2021, worked in science management 2020-2022, and subsequently undertook a three-month research fellowship at the University of Cantabria, Spain. Currently, she is a postdoctoral researcher in the Paleoanthropology working group at the University of Tübingen. Judith has published in world leading journals, including Nature. Her research focuses on the population-level study and identification of trauma in sparse, fragmented, and incomplete human skeletal remains from the Middle Pleistocene to Early Holocene archaeological and fossil records. 
About Archaeology Working Papers
The Working Papers in Archaeology seminar series provides a forum for dissemination of archaeological research and ideas amongst UQ archaeology students and staff. All students are invited to attend the series and postgraduate students, from honours upwards, are invited to present their research. The aim is to provide opportunities for students, staff and those from outside UQ, to present and discuss their work in an informal environment. It is hoped that anyone interested in current archaeological directions, both within and outside the School and University, will be able to attend and contribute to the series.
