Qafzeh 9 mandible (ca 90-100 kyrs BP, Israel) revisited: μ-CT and 3D reveal new pathological conditions

The aim of this paper is to provide new insights into growth patterns and health of Mousterian hunter-gatherers dated to ca. 90-100 kyrs B.P. from the Qafzeh site.

An almost complete skeleton, including the mandible from the Qafzeh site (Qafzeh 9).

Micro-CT and medical imaging techniques are used to explore inaccessible inner structures and to assess the etiology of identified lesion.

Mandibular and dental conditions appear to be growth-related skeletal disorders.

To our knowledge, Qafzeh 9 offers the earliest evidence of associated mandibular and dental pathological conditions (i.e. non-ossifying fibroma of the mandible, pre-eruptive intracoronal resorption and osteochondritis dissecans of the temporomandibular joint) among early anatomically modern humans, and more generally among Middle Palaeolithic hominins in Southwestern Asia. The diagnoses can be added to other growth-related disorders of skulls previously documented from the Qafzeh site (Tillier, 1999; Tillier et al., 2001), suggesting a quite high and exceptional incidence of these conditions compared to those of Palaeolithic populations.

Identification of pathological conditions in subadults from Eurasia dated to the Middle Palaeolithic is documented less often than in adult skeletons. Hence, new results from immature fossil remains are particularly important to our understanding of the past.

This research will be extended to the rest of the skeleton, then to all Qafzeh specimens in order to broaden our understanding of this anatomically modern group.