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11 - A Heart of Stone

A Review of Constrictive Pericarditis and Other Calcified Tissues from the Pathologic–Anatomical Collection at the Narrenturm in Vienna, Austria

from Part II - Cardiovascular Diseases Associated with Human Skeletal Remains

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 March 2023

By
Karin Wiltschke-Schrotta ,
Eduard Winter  and
Michelle Gamble
Edited by
Michaela Binder ,
Charlotte A. Roberts  and
Daniel Antoine
Michaela Binder
Affiliation:
Novetus GmbH Archaeological Services
Charlotte A. Roberts
Affiliation:
Durham University
Daniel Antoine
Affiliation:
British Museum, London
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Summary

The Pathologic–Anatomical Collection in Vienna, Austria, now housed in the Narrenturm (‘Lunatic Tower’, a mental health asylum built in the eighteenth century), offers a valuable reference collection for identifying calcified human tissue from archaeological contexts. This can be achieved through comparison of potential calcifications with documented pathological body parts that were collected from hospital patients for a teaching collection, mainly from the end of the eighteenth century until the mid-twentieth century.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Bioarchaeology of Cardiovascular Disease , pp. 202 - 213
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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