Differentiation of the thickness of the cranial bones

Abstract

The research has been made on the thickness of 91 skulls originating from the medieval cemeteries in Great Poland. The frontal, parietal and occipital bones were taken into account, each characterized by 17 thickness values. Mean thickness of the whole skulls and each bone were established for both sexes. Mean values of the cranial bones thickness were also calculated for each of the measurement points (tabl. 1). For all traits considered the thickness of the male skulls were significantly exceeding the females’ values. The correlation between the cranium size (calculated out of its three main dimensions according to formula √(9-op(eu-eu(ba-b)) and the thickness of its walls was investigated. Correlation coefficients of the size and mean thickness of skulls (r ♂= +0,57,r♀=+0,47) and of the size of skulls and the mean thickness of each bone have proved significant (α=0,05, α=0,01). Higher thickness and size values were observed in the old adults sample in comparison to the young adults one although the differences are so far mostly insignificant.