Humeral Septal Aperture in Ancient Tombos Nubians

The majority of the published literature regarding the septal aperture (SA) dates to the last 200 years. The archeological literature is sparse. The collection from Tombos along the Nile River (1400-656 BCE) provides an opportunity for further study of SA in ancient populations. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence and shape of SA in the population as well as the size of the humerus and correlate that with and without SA in the Tombos population.

Adult humerus specimens from the Tombos skeletal population with intact distal humeri were studied using both photography and caliper measurements. The caliper and photographic methods gave equal results.

There were 164 distal humeri; an SA was present in 40.9%. There were no differences by sex, age group, or laterality. Of the 34 individuals with bilateral intact paired humeri, 47% had SAs. The involvement was bilateral in 13, left in 2, and right in 1. The shapes of the apertures were oval/elliptical in 73%, irregular in 15%, and circular in 12%. Those humeri with an SA had smaller epicondylar breadths, vertical humeral head diameters, humeral shaft diameters, condylar articular width, and trochlear articular width. There were no differences in the coronoid or olecranon fossa width/height. The 41% prevalence of SA in the Tombos population is similar to the 45%-60% in other African archeological studies but higher than the 20%-37% in prehistoric Native Americans. Smaller humeri had a higher prevalence of SA similar to several modern-day studies.

The etiology of SA is not definitively known, with mechanical, structural, and genetic etiologies postulated. A high prevalence of bilaterality is supportive of a genetic etiology; our 81% prevalence of bilaterality suggests a strong genetic component in the etiology of SA in this particular population.