Differential diagnosis on ancient skeletal remains: Conventional methods and novel application of the BSE-mode in SEM on a skull tumor of the early Bronze Age

Tumor-like lesions on skeletal remains put relatively high demands on paleo pathological diagnostic methods. In addition to conventional anthropologica l determination. and non-invasive methods of macroscopical description and radiodiagnostic examination, bony lesions can be analyzed more acurately, b ut also more elaborately by light microscopy of invasive section preparatio ns. In this study an irregular new bone formation on the excavated skull of a juvenile individual was also investigated by scanning electron microscop y (SEM). A cut-out block of the lesion was first observed in the secondary electron-mode (SE-mode), and then methylmethacrylate-embedded ground and po lished sections were for the first time also evaluated in the back-scattere d electron-mode (BSE-mode). Thereby, new insights into the bone structure a nd the development of this tumor-like lesion could be obtained which led to the diagnosis of a menigioma.