Abstract
Craniosynostosis defined as an abnormal premature suture closure in the skull may result in severe deformity of the cranium and, occasionally, deformity of the face with various clinical manifestation.
From the palaeopathological point of view, however, there are no case reports on the craniosynostosis in the human skeletal remains excavated from Japan.
Plagiocephaly, which has relatively low frequency of occurence among the primary craniosynostosis, was diagnosed from a skull of a 5 or 6 years old infant. The skull shows severe deformity due to premature suture closure on the macroscopic observation and many characteristic signs on the roentgenological examination.
In this paper, some important morphological features of the primary craniosynostosis are discussed in detail enough to diagnose the materials palaeopathologically with ease. Many other interesting problems such as the etiology, classification, frequency and associated abnormalities based on the clinical aspects are reviewed.
