Facial Paralysis in a Babylonian Plaque

A terra cotta plaque [LMU 2551] from the Neo-Babylonian period (c.629-539 BCE), housed in the museum of the Archaeology Center at Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, is a representation of right peripheral facial paralysis.

Ancient representations of pathology are rare and often difficult to identify. This is particularly true of Assyrian-Babylonian cultures where, despite numerous surviving medical texts, artistic examples of disease are almost non-existent.

Precise caliper measurements and archaeological analysis of LMU 2551 were used to confirm the authors' hypothesis.

The facial distortions portrayed in LMU 2551 are not accidental. Measurements show a pronounced asymmetry of the lower face where the length from the mid-philtrum to the oral commissure and from the lateral edge of the ala nasi to the mid-ipsilateral nasolabial fold are twice as long in the left than in the right side. The left eye is closed, whereas the right is widely open.

The described plaque is among the oldest representations of facial paralysis on record. It correlates with contemporary Babylonian texts describing neurological disorders but its function is unknown.