Cranial remains from the graveyard to the laboratory: restoration, conservation and craniometric analysis of medieval British skeletal samples

Abstract

The present thesis proposes a comparison of 16 British medieval samples by means of craniometric analysis. The purpose of this study is to determine whether craniometric variation among British medieval groups exists and what are the causes of these differences. Following the reconstruction of 267 skulls from Gloucester, Poulton and Linenhall, 45 measurements for each cranium were recorded. Craniometric data from 946 individuals were analysed with multivariate statistical analyses. A selection of 18 variables was used for comparison among samples. A further comparison with a selection from Howells’ main human groups was carried out. Discriminant function analysis, principal component analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis were carried out to detect differences among British medieval samples and British and Howells’ data set. The results support previous work published by other authors indicating a difference in craniometric measurement among British samples. Further discrimination is proved among samples from different geographic areas. This analysis suggests that the differences in craniometrics among British medieval samples are determined by the migration of foreign people from other European areas. A further difference is demonstrated between British and Howells’ samples, with a clustering based on geographical affinity. The European groups (including the British) resemble each other, while the others cluster based on their geographical distribution. The results prove that cranial measurements follow climate adaptation trends and DNA patterns verified by other researchers’ results.