Further Paleoradiological Evidence of Frontal Sinus Osteoma in Ancient Egypt

Frontal sinus osteoma, a benign tumour,1 has a long record with its first case in medical history dating back to 1586.2 Besides literary descriptions, in the paleopathological literature only few cases have been proposed, with the earliest, in an Egyptian mummy head from the Musée d’Éthnographie de Neuchâtel (Switzerland), dating from the Late Period of Egyptian history (664–332 BC).3 Importantly, the demonstration of the earliest case in anatomically modern humans also represents the only published case of this tumoral manifestation in ancient Egypt.

Here, building on previous knowledge and studies, we aim to enrich the body of notions on this pathology in ancient times, with a special focus on ancient Egyptian human remains.