Case report: Boundaries of oncological and traumatological medical care in ancient Egypt: new palaeopathological insights from two human skulls.

The present case studies report malignant neoplastic and traumatic lesions observed on two ancient Egyptian skulls held at the Duckworth Collection (Cambridge University). The analysis aims to characterise the lesions and provide a diagnosis using a methodology based on micro-CT scanning and microscopic bone surface analysis. Results pointed towards neoplastic lesions in both cases and healed severe skull trauma in one of them suggesting successful traumatological therapy.

Erratum: Under the Skin of a Lion: Unique Evidence of Upper Paleolithic Exploitation and Use of Cave Lion (Panthera spelaea) from the Lower Gallery of La Garma (Spain).

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.

Implications of the prevalence of Ascaris sp. in the funerary context of a Late Antique population (5th-7th c.) in Granada (Spain).

Objective: To evaluate the prevalence of gastro-intestinal parasites in human remains from Late Antiquity (5th - 7th c.) Granada (Spain).

Materials: The study included pelvic and cranial control samples from 17 skeletons from the archaeological sites of Los Mondragones (n = 13) and Rafael Guillén (n = 4).

Zoonotic parasite infection from a funerary context: A Late Antique child case from Cantabrian Spain.

Objective: To evaluate the presence of Dicrocoelium sp. in a child from a Late Antique funerary context from Cantabrian Spain and discuss whether the infection is true infection or pseudoparasitosis.

Materials: Four skeletons, including one from a 5-7 year old child, have been analysed from the archaeological site of El Conventón, dated between the sixth and seventh centuries AD.

Remarks on the cut marks: The Gravettian child from El Castillo (Cantabrian Spain) and the absence of anthropic modifications inferred through taphonomic analysis.

The Gravettian mandible from El Castillo Cave in Spain.

Author Correction: The spread of steppe and Iranian-related ancestry in the islands of the western Mediterranean.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

The spread of steppe and Iranian-related ancestry in the islands of the western Mediterranean.

Steppe-pastoralist-related ancestry reached Central Europe by at least 2500 BC, whereas Iranian farmer-related ancestry was present in Aegean Europe by at least 1900 BC. However, the spread of these ancestries into the western Mediterranean, where they have contributed to many populations that live today, remains poorly understood. Here, we generated genome-wide ancient-DNA data from the Balearic Islands, Sicily and Sardinia, increasing the number of individuals with reported data from 5 to 66.

Under the Skin of a Lion: Unique Evidence of Upper Paleolithic Exploitation and Use of Cave Lion (Panthera spelaea) from the Lower Gallery of La Garma (Spain).

Pleistocene skinning and exploitation of carnivore furs have been previously inferred from archaeological evidence. Nevertheless, the evidence of skinning and fur processing tends to be weak and the interpretations are not strongly sustained by the archaeological record. In the present paper, we analyze unique evidence of patterned anthropic modification and skeletal representation of fossil remains of cave lion (Panthera spelaea) from the Lower Gallery of La Garma (Cantabria, Spain).

Make it clear: molds, transparent casts and lightning techniques for stereomicroscopic analysis of taphonomic modifications on bone surfaces.

This paper provides detailed description of a non-destructive, low-cost, and low-time consuming technique for producing high-resolution casts for the observation of taphonomic modifications on bone surfaces. The aim of the whole process is to obtain molds that accurately replicate the original bone surface at both the macro- and microscopic levels. The high quality transparent epoxy casts produced are analyzed by light microscopy and used to produce detailed microphotographs of bone surfaces.