ABSTRACT
The benefits of the forensic anthropologist's assessment of antemortem traumatic lesions are many; analysis of antemortem trauma can be particularly informative to the reconstruction of life episodes and thus work as excellent factors of individualization. This chapter examines differential diagnoses among pathological and true traumatic injuries. Bone injury is, for most people, synonymous with fracture. However, there are a variety of other conditions that can result in injury to the bone tissue, including tumours, infection, and genetic disorders. In the forensic anthropology case, where only the skull was present and in the absence of any medical files and/or further data, it was the type of craniotomy displayed namely, the type of suture that lead to the supposition that we were dealing with a particularly ancient case. Finally, antemortem trauma has the potential to contribute to the knowledge of events prior to death. The analysis of antemortem trauma is an important part of the forensic anthropologists overall assessment.
