Bronze Age Burials with Blunt Weapons from the Sugokleja Barrow: Anthropological and Paleopathological Perspective

The paper analyzes some pathological marks as well as non-pathological features observed in the two male skeletal samples from the burials recently discovered in the Sugokleya barrow (Ukraine): one is attributed to the Pit Grave culture, and the other to the Ingul Catacomb culture. The intravital and perimortal injuries' patterning, as well as the presence of wooden mace in the Pit grave, and a stone axe head in the Catacomb grave, suggest that the buried persons were warriors. The specificity of the muscle relief development on the bones, the occupational stress markers or muscle-skeletal markers along with degenerative and post-traumatic and inflammatory diseases of the joints of limbs and spine are combined into osteological sets of markers associated with the intensive use of weapons.