The Abnormalities of the Sunghir People

Throughout the previous chapters detailing and comparing the Sunghir human remains, there have been frequent references to their abnormalities. Some of these unusual features are obvious and sufficiently pronounced as to remove the bones from direct paleobiological consideration (e.g., the Sunghir 1 pollical osteoarthrosis and the Sunghir 3 femoral diaphyses). Other features are modest and had no apparent effect on the functional anatomical interpretations (e.g., the Sunghir 1 ulnar carpometacarpal osteoarthrosis). A few aspects may modify either the considerations of the osteometric morphology (e.g., the Sunghir 1 frontal midline protrusion) or discrete traits (e.g., the Sunghir 2 dental asymmetries). Some of these features are obviously pathological and represent reflections of developmental or degenerative strains on the body (e.g., Sunghir 2 and 3 dental enamel hypoplasias (DEH), or the Sunghir 1 manual osteoarthrosis). Other aspects may not be pathological sensu stricto but they represent variations that push the limits of “normal” human variation (e.g., the Sunghir 1 femoral asymmetry and the Sunghir 3 foramina transversaria). These aspects that have been described in detail in previous chapters are referred to here, but the others, whose description has been deferred, are detailed in this chapter. A number of these abnormalities of the Sunghir human remains have been noted previously, beginning with Debetz’s (1967) initial observations on the Sunghir 1 skeleton, the initial description of the Sunghir 2 and 3 remains (Nikityuk and Kharitonov 1984), and Bukhman’s (1984) radiographic analysis of the Sunghir 3 remains. These and further observations and interpretations were made in the context of the 1990s’ reanalysis of the Sunghir remains (Buzhilova 2000b, 2000c; Mednikova 2000c, 2000d). There have subsequently been additional analyses of specific aspects of these abnormalities, including differential diagnosis of the Sunghir 3 femoral deformities (Formicola and Buzhilova 2004), description of the T1 injury to Sunghir 1 discovered in 2009 (Trinkaus and Buzhilova 2012), detailed assessment of the Sunghir 2 and 3 DEH (Guatelli-Steinberg et al. 2013), and assessment of the degree to which the deformities of Sunghir 3 might have affected her activity levels (Cowgill et al. 2012b).