Prehistoric beaten-copper cranium

Microtomography (μCT) has become indispensable for imaging unique objects. We investigated a historic case of a ‘beaten-copper’ cranium from around 5,000 BCE discovered at the site of Els Trocs in the Spanish pyrenees. The skull of an approximately five-year-old child (ET1/CET1) shows distinct impressions of the cerebral convolutions (gyri cerebri) on the inner surface (tabula interna) of the frontal, parietal and occipital bone. These changes are visually reminiscent of beaten-copper and are associated with chronically increased intracranial pressure, which may have various causes. The investigation was performed with a nanotom m (Baker Hughes, Wunstorf, Germany). The 60 cm distance between source and detector and a horizontal shift of the detector (3,072 pixels × 2,400 pixels) allows visualizing specimens up to 35 cm in diameter. The 2,000 radiographs of the μCT-study were acquired with an acceleration voltage of 150 kV and a beam current of 60 mA using a pixel length of 68 μm.

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