HUMAN
LCF INTERSECTION
In the
south of China, in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, the archaeological
Neolithic site of Dingsishan was investigated. Burials of 355 people were found
in this place. The authors of the article (2024YeZ_LiFJ) identified 91 skeletons
with traces of manipulations with the remains. They are attributed to burials
of the Dingsishan III-IV phase, aged 8.0-4.5 thousand years.
13 notches were found on the proximal part of various femurs. «Cutmarks on the femoral head, neck and intertrochanteric line, as well as along the medial linea aspera of the femoral shaft, suggest that soft tissue around the hip, including the iliofemoral ligament and the iliacus and adductor muscles, was severed to disarticulate the joint.» This and other postmortem bone injuries «... suggests that corpse treatment at Dingsishan included disarticulation» (2024YeZ_LiFJ).
Figure 4 of the cited article shows the distribution and direction of cutmarks on human skeletons from Dingxishan (2024YeZ_LiFJ). Our attention was drawn to the left part of the illustration, which depicts a skeleton in a frontal view. The neck of the right femur and femur show cutmarks across its long axis. Such marks on the bone may appear during a circular section of the joint capsule in order to remove the femur from the acetabulum. The position of one cutmarks on the right femur is at the site of the distal attachment of the ligamentum capitis femoris (LCF). Cutting off the LCF is the only rational explanation for the damage to the medial part of the femoral head by a cutting instrument.
We believe that the
said cutmarks is the earliest evidence of observation of the human LCF and its
intersection during disarticulation of the femur. Initially, the «pathologist»
of Dingsishan performed an arthrotomy of the hip joint and attempted to
dislocate the femur. Probably, the removal of the femur was prevented by the
strong LCF, which did not come off. This required its separation from the
femoral head with a sharp instrument. In the case under discussion, when
cutting off the distal end of the LCF, the knife touched the articular surface
of the bone. This indirectly indicates the short length of the strongest LCF,
which caused the difficulty of accessing the acetabular part of the joint and
separating the femur. This is observed in surgical practice in young people
without hip pathology.
References
Ye Z, Wang M, Stock JT, Li FJ. Disarticulation, evisceration and excarnation: Neolithic mortuary practices at Dingsishan, southern China. Antiquity. 2024;98(399)616-35. [cambridge.org]
Keywords
ligamentum capitis femoris, ligamentum teres, ligament of head of femur, homo sapiens, disarticulation, operation, intersection, observation
The original text in Russian is available at the link: Пересечение LCF человека
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