Playa Venado Skull (IMAGE)

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute

Playa Venado Skull

Caption

One of two cases of healed blows to the cranium from the Playa Venado excavations. Most of the evidence of violence was interpreted by Harvard archaeologist, Samuel Lothrop based on body positioning in graves at the site. Smithsonian post-doctoral fellow, Nicole Smith-Guzmán, found no examples of trauma that occurred near the time of death among the skeletons in the collection.

Credit

Nicole Smith-Guzmán, STRI

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Credit: Nicole Smith-Guzmán, STRI

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