Mastoid Osteoma on the Skeleton of a Known Individual from the Bethel Cemetery

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Bethel Cemetery Relocation Project: Historical, Osteological, and Material Culture Analyses of a Nineteenth-Century Indiana Cemetery" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Elizabeth Poland was a member of one of the prominent families interred at the Bethel Cemetery, located in Indianapolis, IN; she died in 1896 at the age of 76. Her skeleton indicated several pathological conditions including pedal arthritis, vertebral degeneration, antemortem tooth loss, and hyperostosis frontalis interna. She also had a 3+ cm osseous growth on her parietal, superior to her mastoid process. Our objective herein is to provide paleopathological analysis and diagnosis that clarifies the severity of this prominent lesion. Our differential diagnosis focused on osteoblastic lesions including primary and metastatic neoplastic lesions (e.g., osteosarcoma, metastatic breast cancer), fibrous dysplasia, osseous venous vascular malformation, intraosseous meningioma, and osteoma. Osteoma is the most likely condition based on external and internal morphology and location. Mastoid osteomas tend to form on cranial vaults as benign outgrowths and present as sizable, egg-shaped nodules on the posterior parietal. They are a rare (~1%) but persistent idiopathic condition in ancient and extant peoples. Most mastoid osteomas produce no pain or adverse symptoms and often go undiagnosed until swelling emerges behind the ear.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)   •
• The Bethel Cemetery Relocation Project: Historical, Osteological, and Material Culture Analyses of a Nineteenth-Century Indiana Cemetery

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36140.0