Oxenham, Marc F., Tilley, Lorna, Matsumura, Hirofumi, Nguyen, Lan Cuong, Nguyen, Kim Thuy, Nguyen, Kim Dung, Domett, Kate, and Huffer, Damien (2009) Paralysis and severe disability requiring intensive care in Neolithic Asia. Anthropological Science, 117 (2). pp. 107-112.

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Abstract

This communication documents one of the earliest verifiable cases of human paralysis associated with severe spinal pathology. A series of skeletal abnormalities is described for a young adult male (M9) from a Southeast Asian Neolithic community. Differential diagnosis suggests that M9 suffered from a severely disabling congenital fusion of the spine (Klippel–Feil Syndrome, Type III), resulting in child-onset lower body paralysis at a minimum (maximally quadriplegia). M9 experienced severe, most probably total, incapacitation for at least a decade prior to death. In the prehistoric context, this individual’s condition would have rendered him completely dependent on others for survival.

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