Consideration on Trephinated skull in the Sahre-e Sukte (Burnt City) in Sistan

Cranial trephination is a technique which was used by ancient people to trephine skullswith some instruments. there are different types of trephination, the most common andprimitive of which were trianglular and quadrangular in shape. a group burial was foundin an archeological excavation of burnt city in sistan province in 1977. out of the 13skeletons, one skeleton belonged to a 13th years old girl who had a triangular perforationin the right parietal area (number: gtt1003j). in this research, after assessing the skulldamage, cephalometric caliper gauges with salt and volume were checked in tehran medicalhistory museum. cephalometric considerations showed unusual indexes (skull index:76.61; upper facial index: 58.94) being classified as mesocephalic and euryprospic. theseindexes shows the skull were larger than usual. also, owing to the presence of porothichyperostosis (ph), the patient is probably suffering from anemia. according to the findingsthe surgical operation was successful. since there was certain treatment other than theoperation for this ailment, the operation was probably performed following certain culturaland or ethnic beliefs.