Dictionary

postcranium en · NOUN

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *pós Proto-Indo-European *-ti Proto-Indo-European *pósti Proto-Italic *posti Old Latin poste Latin post English post- English cranium English postcranium From post- + cranium.

Meanings

1. The portion of a vertebrate skeleton located caudal to the cranium (that is, in bipeds, inferior to it).
   • However, King (1994) revealed four lead-shot balls with a skull with evidence of fracture from a post-Medieval cemetery at Glasgow Cathedral, Scotland, and Willey and Scott (1996) report six of ten skeletons from the Battle of the Little Bighorn with gunshot wounds to either the cranium or the postcranium. 2013, Charlotte A Roberts, The Archaeology of Disease:
   • Upper half of postcranium with the cerebral plate concave in profile, inferior margin of cerebral plate raised and slightly prominent, lower part of postcranium more or less convex. 1878, Proceedings of the United States National Museum, Smithsonian Institution Press, page 324:
   • In contrast, in Bronze Age samples cranial traumas are concentrated in males (with 5 of 6 cases in this sample; sexed postcrania are too sparse to analyze), and both cranial and postcranial traumas in the Iron Age are more frequent among males. 1997, Debra K. Martin, Troubled Times: Violence and Warfare in the Past, page 137:

Forms

Deriveds

postcranial · postcranially

Relateds

pericranium