Secondarily Buried Earliest Jomon Skeletons, Including the Hip Bone Pierced by a Bone Spear Tip

The human skeletal remains excavated at Rock Shelter of Kamikuroiwa, Ehime Prefecture, Japan, in August 1969 dated back to the middle of the Earliest stage of the Jomon period. The number of individuals estimated was seven. Three of them, two adult males and a child, were found buried secondarily in a small circular pit dug at the innermost recess of the rock shelter. The following was the form of the secondary burial observed: firstly, their skulls were placed on the bottom of the pit; secondly, the small bones were put among the skulls; thirdly, thé adult flat bones were laid upon the small bones; fourthly, the adult long bones were arranged parallel to each other on the flat bones; and finally, the human remains were covered by pottery fragments and flat stones.One of the adult males secondarily buried was found with a bone spear tip lodged in the right wing of the ilium of the hip bone. The wing of the ilium was so wounded posteriorly from the right side that the spear tip penetrated the gluteus and iliacus muscles, which sandwiched the wing of the ilium, to project approximately three centimeters into the abdominal cavity. The absence of any bony reaction around the wound showed that death followed rapidly, presumably from perforation of the intestines.No evidence of the first temporary burial of these adult male and child skeletons during which the fleshy parts had decomposed was observed.There was found another adult female skeleton previously buried flexed at the same site where the pit for the secondary burial was dug. Of her skeleton, only the skull was removed to, and reinterred in, the neibourhood of the pelvis, though the parts of the lower limb bones forming the knee joints were carelessly broken off and put collectively in the secondary pit.Anthropological and archaeological evaluation of both the secondary burial at the rock shelter and the bone spear tip wound in the male pelvis found in the Earliest stage of the Jomon period was discussed

Adult male · Archaeology · Biology · Geography · Human skeleton · Perforation · Skeleton (computer programming) · Spear · Anatomy · Anatomy and Medical Technology · Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies · Paleopathology and ancient diseases