Volume 160, 3 February 2015, Pages 133–139
Abstract
Ethnopharmacological relevance
Ever since the Late Medieval Ages historico-medical literature has attested the use of cranium humanun
as an ingredient in pharmacological preparations for the treatment of
epilepsy. Some authors suggest the use of pulverized bone obtained from
individuals who died a violent death and were not buried.
Materials and methods
The
skeletal remains of hundreds of male inhabitants from Otranto, killed
by the Ottomans in a mass execution on 14 August, 1480, are preserved in
the Chapel of Martyrs in Otranto Cathedral (Apulia, southern Italy).
The so-called “martyrs of Otranto” were beatified in 1771 and canonized
by Pope Francis on 12 May, 2013. A cranial vault with 16 holes of
different sizes, with regular rounded shape, was noticed among the
skeletal remains, symmetrically arranged behind five large rectangular
windows. Eight of the 16 holes, which exposed the diploe without
reaching the endocranial surface, are incomplete perforations, while 8
holes are complete perforations; no evidence of bone reaction is
visible.
Results
The lesions are
the result of a multiple trepanation performed by using an instrument
equipped with a large rounded tip. This tool could not produce bone
discs, but only bone powder. It is impossible to establish with
certainty the reasons for these multiple trepanations, but several
hypotheses can be advanced, ranging from experimental surgery to a
procedure designed to obtain relics. However, saint bones are very
likely to have been regarded as having medicinal properties. As a matter
of fact the martyrs of Otranto died a violent death and were not
buried, and the pulverized bone obtained from their skulls might have
been considered a particularly powerful ingredient for pharmacological
preparations, as attested in the historico-medical literature.
Conclusions
The
skull of Otranto might represent a unique evidence of multiple
trepanations carried out to obtain bone powder as ingredient for
therapeutic preparations.
Graphical abstract
Keywords
- Apulia;
- Renaissance;
- Trepanation;
- Cranium humanum;
- Epilepsy;
- Therapy
- Corresponding author. Tel.:
+39 050 992894; fax: +39 050 992706.
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