The corpses of the warriors of the famous battle of Aljubarrota, 1385, were laid in disorder in a common burial ground at the battlefield. The material was excavated in 1958 and then transferred, at least partly, to the Department of Anthropology of the Coimbra University (Portugal). The sample consists of 400 individuals represented mainly by their long bone fragments. Complete bones are an exception which implies that it is not possible with this material to reconstruct the different skeletons.
In the preliminary anthropological analysis of these individuals, the majority of them males who died between 20 and 60 years old, the bone injuries were the most relevant observation.
In this paper we refer to the most striking lesions due to violent and aggressive actions during fighting such as cuts, fractures, infections and eventual amputations. The probable causes of those wounds are also approached.
Collection: Texts
Project: 6. Under a cloak of terror: violence and armed conflict in Europe.
Chronology: XIV
Scope: Secondary Education, Higher Education
Resource type: Article
Format: Texts
Source: International Journal of Osteoarcheology
Language: English
Date: 1998
Owner: Porto group (Modernalia)
Identifier: https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1099-1212(199711/12)7:6<595::AID-OA339>3.0.CO;2-T
Abstract: Aljubarrota
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