Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 50 (3) 2022   doi:10.17746/1563-0110.2022.50.3.131-139

Annotation:  Aktas—an “Ephemeral” Upper Paleolithic Site in North Kazakhstan Neolithic Burials in the Zelinda River Mouth, Northern Angara: Burial Practices and Radiocarbon Chro Classic Samarra Painted Pottery from Yarim Tepe I, the Neolithic of Northern Iraq The Megalithic Tradition of East and Southeast Asia The Beginning of Iron Metallurgy in East Asia Tools Used in Tagar Rock Art: Findings of an Experimental Traceological Study Grave Goods of an Elite Saka Burial at Kyrykoba in the Context of Cultural Ties Between the Nomads o On Phoinix (Φοίνιξ) and Its Distinguishing Marks: A Karian “Type Site” Medieval Burials at Ryabchikov Klyuch-1, the Kansk-Rybinsk Basin Chinese Coins from the Early Medieval Cemetery Gorny-10, Northern Altai The State of Preservation of the Shakhty Rock Art Site and the Prospects of Its Conservation South Russian Settlers of Western Siberia in the Late 19th to Early 20th Centuries, Based on Archiva A Case of Chronic Maxillary Sinusitis in a Late Neanderthal Population of the Altai Mountains Analysis of 3D-Models of Artifi cially Deformed Crania, Using Geometric Morphometry Dental Data on the Origin of the Early Iron Age Bolshaya Rechka Population in the Upper Ob Area, and   

A Case of Chronic Maxillary Sinusitis
in a Late Neanderthal Population of the Altai Mountains

A.V. Zubova^{1, 4}, A.M. Kulkov², O.L. Pikhur³, V.G. Moiseyev¹, K.A. Kolobova⁴, and S.V. Markin⁴

¹Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera), Russian Academy of Sciences, Universitetskaya nab. 3, St. Petersburg, 199034, Russia

²Saint Petersburg State University, Universitetskaya nab. 7–9, St. Petersburg, 199034, Russia

³Kursk State Medical University, K. Marksa 3, Kursk, 305041, Russia

⁴Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pr. Akademika Lavrentieva 17, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia

We describe a likely case of chronic maxillary sinusitis (CMS) in a Neanderthal skeletal sample from Chagyrskaya Cave, in the Altai Mountains. Signs of CMS were recorded in the Chagyrskaya 57 specimen, which is a fragment of a left maxilla. Alveoli of the upper first molar are partially preserved, and so are the second and third upper molars, with adjacent parts of the walls, and the floor of the maxillary sinus. The fragment was found in layer 6b, dating to 53,100-51,100 BP. We analyze the factors that had caused the development of the disease, and assess its etiology. In the 3D-model, generated by computed microtomography, and in the original specimen, porotic changes were registered, situated at the fracture line of the alveoli of M1, lost post-mortem, and near the vestibular roots of both preserved molars. Also, there were isolated bone spicules, 1.0-2.6 mm in size. These signs indicate incipient CMS, evidently caused by chronic periodontal disease combined with a deep alveolar recess of the maxillary sinus. As the periodontal gap expanded, several small nutrient foramina, piercing the bottom of the sinus, merged. As a result, several oro-antral channels formed, whereupon the infection spread into the maxillary sinus. Since the deep alveolar recess is observed in the vast majority of Neanderthal crania with published images or reconstructed maxillary cavities, it can be assumed that Neanderthals were predisposed to odontogenic CMS.

Keywords: Chronic maxillary sinusitis, Neanderthals, Chagyrskaya Cave, paleopathology, archaeology, Middle Paleolithic