Dwarfism in Egypt and classical antiquity: iconography and medical history.

Many aspects of the medical history of the ancient Mediterranean world remain unclear. For many conditions, especially genetic, texts are missing and human remains are scanty. We must rely essentially upon iconography to throw some light on the pathological forms existing in the past, as well as on ancient medical notions. In this paper, I take the example ofrestricted growth, commonly called dwarfism, a condition characterized by a significantly short stature, over three standard deviations below the mean height ofa population ofthe same age and sex.2 The causes ofgrowth disorders are extremely varied (endocrine, metabolic, nutritional), but most types of short stature are due to genetic mutations, which suggests that the birth incidence of dwarfism should be similar in all societies throughout known human history.3 The occurrence of the most common disorder, achondroplasia, is of one mutant baby in 34,000 live births, or, ifwe include related types, ofone in 10,000. When the disorder is due to a dominant genetic mutation, as in achondroplasia, if one parent is