Regional differences in the skull of the Edo period - Morphology, syphilis, and trauma

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K07242
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Physical anthropology
• Research Institution: National Museum of Nature and Science, Tokyo
• Principal Investigator: Sakaue Kazuhiro 独立行政法人国立科学博物館, 人類研究部, 研究主幹 (70333789)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 人骨 / 江戸時代 / 頭骨 / 形態分析 / 貴族形質 / 刀創 / 梅毒

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The purpose of this study is to clarify the regional and social class differences in morphological features of the skulls belonging to the Edo period excavated from each region of Japan, and also to study the syphilitic and traumatic changes in these skulls.
After the specimens up to 541 individuals that were stored in each region and newly excavated were macroscopically examined, it had been shown that the social class difference in the skull morphology were reconfirmed among specimens excavated within Tokyo metropolitan area, that the male skulls of the Chubu and Tohoku region tend to be outliers against other regions in principal component analysis, that the skulls of the Samurai class apparently located close to each other in plots of principal component scores regardless of regions, that the syphilitic and traumatic changes in skulls were found only in a few individuals except for the Edo region.

Free Research Field

自然人類学