Wednesday, 15 October 2014

the leper's skull




Not being an anatomist of any kind I find the ‘small’ bones hard to see in terms of their wider context.  However this x-ray of a skull and complete mandible is very striking.  Its from the Medieval lepers’ cemetery in Chichester. 
X-rays of the bones in the BARC collection at the University of Bradford are remarkable because they are just bones (and no living body attached) so they can be x-rayed to a higher intensity giving beautifully clear images.
Professor Keith Manchester says that there are early signs of bone absorption around the nose which would indicate that this person was suffering from leprosy.

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