Abstract
The Pretoria Bone Collection (PBC) began in 1942 with the opening of a medical school at the University of Pretoria (UP) in Pretoria, South Africa, where this skeletal collection is housed in the Department of Anatomy. The purpose of this paper is to provide information on the national legislation associated with obtaining, curating and researching skeletal remains in South Africa, the demographic composition of the PBC, and the inclusion of a portion of these remains into a digital repository known as Bakeng se Afrika (BsA). The PBC comprises 873 complete skeletons, 344 complete postcrania without crania, and 308 complete crania without postcrania. Skeletal contents are reflective of the population statistics of South Africa, with a smaller proportion of White (32%) than Black (65%) South Africans. Unlike the population profile, males in the PBC are greater in number (75.5%) than females (24.5%), which may be explained by the number of migrant labourers traveling into a large city such as Pretoria. From this sample, crania (206), maxillae (141), mandibulae (408), femora (137), and radii (134), as well as several other skeletal elements were micro-XCT scanned and are available on the BsA server. A researcher needs to submit an online application to the Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) of the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Pretoria for access to these collections.
Highlights
Worldwide, human skeletal collections have provided medical and healthcare practitioners as well as biological anthropologists with knowledge of skeletal anatomy, human variation, disease, and trauma
The current use of three-dimensional (3D) models and prints in pre-operative surgical planning is a paradigmatic shift in medical practice that opens up novel spaces for the development of digital planning teams in healthcare as well as data sharing and transdisciplinary collaboration amongst researchers, educators and institutions on a global scale [1]
The purpose of this paper is to provide information on the current national legislation associated with the acquisition, housing and researching of skeletal remains in South Africa, to outline the composition of the Pretoria Bone Collection (PBC), and to highlight the contribution of this bone collection to the Bakeng se Afrika (BsA) digital repository
Summary
Human skeletal collections have provided medical and healthcare practitioners as well as biological anthropologists with knowledge of skeletal anatomy, human variation, disease, and trauma. Since 2018, as part of a collaborative Erasmus+ capacity-building project in higher education (CBHE) from the European Union (EU) known as Bakeng se Afrika (BsA), a portion of the PBC, along with portions of the Human Skeletal Collection at the Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University (SMU) in Pretoria North, South Africa, and the Kirsten Skeletal Collection at the Stellenbosch University (SUN) in Stellenbosch, South Africa [6], was scanned using micro-focus X-ray Computed Tomography (micro-XCT) at the South African Nuclear Energy Corporation (Necsa) This collaborative project aims to develop a digital repository of frequently used skeletal elements, namely the cranium, maxilla, mandible, femur and radius, from these three medical schools. The requirements on how to access the PBC and the BsA digital repository are provided
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