Gonial angle measures in Medieval and contemporary skeletons

We aimed to test the possible differences in gonial angle values between a Medieval sample and a contemporary sample because literature suggests that modern skulls tend to have larger gonial angles. We analyzed the gonial angle values in a Medieval sample (n=69) and a current sample (20^th century sample; n=146). We found that current gonial angle values were 3.6º (CI95% 2.2-4.9) larger than the Medieval angle values (p<0.001). No significant differences between the right and left angle values in both the Medieval (p=0.131) and current sample (p=0.120) were observed. The right angle values of the current sample were 3.6º larger (CI95% 1.9-5.3) than the medieval right angle values while the left angle values of the current sample were 3.5º larger (CI95% 1.9-5.2) than the Medieval left angle values. Our research suggests that the present population have larger angle values than the Medieval population.