Human Male Skull with Machete Wounds BC-185
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Forensic osteologic modern human skull with machete wounds to the head. Cast by us from an original skull that is in a North American medical school forensic osteology teaching collection. Black male, mid-thirties, modern specimen, North America.

All of the changes in this skull are the result of machete blows followed by submersion in the ocean for two weeks. The action of the water and sand ground the edges of the fractured bone to a smoother finish than expected for fresh bone injuries. The machete strikes caused all of the calvarial fractures, with loss of the comminuted fragments from the left side of the face and the left and right sides of the calvarium. Note the multiple linear chop-type fractures on the left temporo-occipital and left occipital regions. One of the fractures extends anteriorly across to the left mandibular condyle and coronoid process. The chop injuries are straight, and are oriented in different directions, and at different angles. This random orientation of the chop injuries is not consistent with the usual parallel strike marks from a boat propeller. The large number of strikes is also not consistent with the one or two strikes by a boat propeller on the head of a victim in the water.