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Survival in Mudejar Spain in the Middle Ages (thirteenth–fourteenth centuries): Ancient Rare Diseases—an uncommon diagnosis in archaeological human remains

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Abstract

Purpose

The finding of severe skeletal alterations in ancient remains could give us useful information not only about the pathologies of the individual per se, as it could infer the state of health of a population.

Methods

From the findings of the Mudéjar Cemetery of Uceda (Guadalajara, Central Spain) where a total of 116 burials with almost complete skeleton were recovered, an interesting individual is presented (palaeopathological perspective). The individual 114UC corresponds to a male of 20–25 years old and its age goes back to the thirteenth–fourteenth centuries.

Results

The first inspection showed the presence of serious alterations especially in the lumbar spine and pelvic girdle. Seven vertebrae (from T11 to L5) showed an unusual posterior fusion only in the postzygapophyseal joints. The pelvis, after being accurately assembled and congruence verified by X-ray and CT scan, showed a noticeable asymmetry of both iliac wings together with a coxa magna protusa (Otto’s pelvis), severe anteversion of both cup hips and osteochondritis of the right femoral head. The posterior-slope of both tibias reached about 10°.

Conclusions

The differential diagnoses lead us to think of Arthrogryposis Multiplex Congenita as the most probable diagnosis. We analyzed the same biomechanical aspects after taking into account some patterns that give us information about a possible mobility in the first stage of life. We discuss the very few other cases described both from artworks and in the palaeopathological record. To our knowledge, this case could be the oldest published case of AMC worldwide.

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Data availability

Due to the nature of the research, data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analyzed in this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sección de Antropología Forense, Instituto de Medicina Legal de Madrid, Madrid, Spain

    Enrique Dorado-Fernández

  2. Departamento de Biología, Unidad de Antropología Física, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain

    Jesús Herrerín-López

  3. Grupo 365 Arqueología, Guadalajara, Spain

    Ildefonso Ramírez-González & Loreto Parro-González

  4. Hospital Universitari Sagrat Cor, Quironsalud/Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

    Albert Isidro-Llorens

Authors
  1. Enrique Dorado-Fernández
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  5. Albert Isidro-Llorens
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Enrique Dorado-Fernandez, Jesus Herrerin-Lopez, Ildefonso Ramos-Gonzalez, Loreto Parro-Gonzalez and Albert Isidro-LLorens. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Albert Isidro LLorens and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Albert Isidro-Llorens.

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Ethics approval

The study did not require ethics approval. The study on human remains was carried out in accordance with the ethical standards contained in different international consensus documents.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Dorado-Fernández, E., Herrerín-López, J., Ramírez-González, I. et al. Survival in Mudejar Spain in the Middle Ages (thirteenth–fourteenth centuries): Ancient Rare Diseases—an uncommon diagnosis in archaeological human remains. International Orthopaedics (SICOT) 47, 2869–2875 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00264-023-05863-1

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