Dr. T. Tóth szerk.: Studia historico-anthropologica (Anthropologia Hungarica 10. Budapest, 1971)

Symbolic trephination. - Found in two females. On the skull of a 21-25 years old individual (No. 25), three trephinations are observable on the parietal bones, in the line of the sutura coronalis. The central, round trephination, about 10 mm in diameter, is on the right parietal bone, its centre exactly 10 mm distant from both the sutura sagittalis and the sutura coronalis. The right and left, similarly symbolic, trephinations are both removed 50 mm from the central one, and the centre of both lies exactly 20 mm from the sutura coronalis. Though the rightside trephination is slightly shallower and of a poorer execution than the other two, they had probably been made, on the basis of their symmetrical arrangement, at the same time. - The skull of a 59-65 years old female (No. 2) shows two symbolic trephinations. One of them is about 8 mm in diameter, irregularly rotund, and situated immediately behind the bregma point on the sutura sagittalis; the other one is also adjacent to the bregma, but on the frontal bone. Since the healing process is far advanced on both trephinations, their simultaneous or temporally disjunct execution cannot be safely established. Owing to the dissimilar character of the two trephinations, they had probably been made at different times. Symbolically trephined skulls occur in great number in the skeletal findings deriving from the tenth-eleventh centuries in Hungary. According to the comprehensive study of Nemeskéri-Éry -Kralovánszky (i960), one trephination occurs in 72 per cent on their study material of 95 skulls, two trephinations in 16 per cent, three trephinations in 6 per cent, and four and five trephinations (combined) also in 6 per cent. The threefold trephination of skull No. 25 represents therefore one of the rarer cases, and occurs primarily in findings of the tenth century. The case Is the more interesting as it was made in a very young age, and on the basis of the moderate advance of healing, at the age of 19-20 years. A repeatedly trephined individual of a similarly young age is known in one instance only in our home material: the 20-24 years old female of Grave 9 In the liashalom cemetery II (Nemeskéri-Éry-Kralovánszky I960; Éry, under élaborât i en). 58