Morphometric Analysis of Accessory Vessel Grooves on the Frontal Bone: First Documented Cases from Namibia
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: This paper presents the first documented cases of accessory vessel grooves on the external cranial vault from Namibia. These nonmetric anatomical variants were observed on two dry skulls housed at the Namibian Police Forensic Science Institute in Windhoek. A morphometric analysis was conducted to document the precise location and measurements of these grooves relative to established cranial osteological landmarks. Accurate identification of such traits is critical in distinguishing normal anatomical variation from cranial trauma, pathological lesions, or taphonomic damage during forensic analysis. This study contributes to the limited literature on cranial vascular imprint variation in African skeletal samples and highlights the need for further research on the morphometric characterization of accessory vessel grooves in forensic and bioarchaeological contents. KEYWORDS: Accessory vessel grooves, Frontal bone, Nonmetric trait, Forensic anthropology, Supraorbital artery, Namibia.
Authors: Jan Van der Merwe, Quenton Wessels, Anneli Poolman
Institution: University of Namibia
Language: English
Subfield: Archeology
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4413990367