Luboš Vyhnánek

A Case of Osteosarcoma in a Late Medieval–Early Modern Skull from Kyjov (Czech Republic)

After the reconstruction of the original parish church of the Moravian town of Kyjov in the latter part of the seventeenth century, human skeletal remains from the disturbed graves of the surrounding cemetery were gathered in a vault which was partially excavated in 1994. Among disarticulated bones of at least 106 individuals, a fragmented skull of a young male was found, with a massive outgrowth of bone on the right parietal, originally continuing fluently on the non-preserved frontal scale, on edges lifting the outer lamina. The inner lamina was covered less intensively by the bony growth. Radiography and CT scans showed a non-homogeneous structure, the inside being irregular and the outside granulated or radially striated. A metastatic lytic focus was detected in the same bone. Histology and SEM examination showed an uneven mineralization of the bone tissue, consisting of rough, thickened and irregularly spaced trabeculae, with cellular remains or mineralized matrix on the surface. The differential diagnosis took meningioma into consideration but the most probable diagnosis was osteogenic sarcoma, which is still infrequent in the palaeopathological record from the Old World and its localization in the cranial vault is very rare.

‘Kissing’ osteochondroma: A case from Ancient Egypt

The ‘kissing’ osteochondroma is a special type of benign bone outgrowth characteristic of paired long bones. In these cases the bone tumour growing towards the adjacent paired bone causes a reactive impression and erosion on its surface. A case of the ‘kissing’ type of osteochondroma was diagnosed on the forearm bones of an individual from Ancient Egypt (Saqqara, Late Period). It is worth drawing attention to this case not only because of the rare occurrence of forearm bone osteochondroma in ancient skeletal series but also because of the possibility of misdiagnosing the lesion as a malignant bone tumour. Copyright

Egyptian Mummies in Czechoslovak Collections

Outline of the history of research on mummies and mummification, procedures of Ancient Egyptian mummification, methods of research on mummies from Czechoslovak collections, and detailed description of human and animal mummies, survey of demographic data, dating and investigation of mummification techniques, radiological examination of mummies. Some chemical analyses of coatings and stuffings of mummies are given. -- AATA

I. Survey of Egyptian Mummies in Czechoslovak Collections

Nobody could realise before the s tar t of our survey of Egyptian mummies scattered in various Czechoslovak collection how large their total number was and what a wealth of scientific information was hidden in them. Except for single reports on some of the mummies (J. N. C z e r m a k 1852, 1879, M. G r ü n e r t 1894, G y ö r i k 1895, G. S t e i n d o r f f 1917, E. S i m a n d l 1928, T s c h e r m a k S e y s e n e g g 1935) no scientific papers dealing with them were available until appearance of our publications (E. S t r o u h a l and L. V y h n á n e k 1974, 1975, M. V e r n e r 1974, L. V y h n á n e k and E. S t r o u h a l 1975).

Radiographic Examination of the Mummy of Qenamñn the Seal-Bearer

Angelsachsen und Skandinaviern auf Ägypten zurück und meint, sie seien durch den Handel und durch Pilgerreisen vermittelt worden, was von anderen 1,11 bezweifelt wird. Diese Beispiele ließen sich vermehren. Ich hoffe aber, schon jetzt gezeigt zu haben, wie sehr die Koptologie mit Nachbardisziplinen verzahnt ist und die Zusammenarbeit für alle Seiten fruchtbar werden kann. Dankbar darf ich bekennen, daß ich bereits so viel Bereitwilligkeit zur Zusammenarbeit gefunden habe, daß mir eine gleichzeitige Durchführung nicht möglich ist.