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A Byzantine Tarsal Coalition From A Byzantine Monastery
Author(s) -
Throckmorton Zach,
Sheridan Susan G.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.2018.32.1_supplement.775.2
Subject(s) - tarsal bone , tarsal joint , tarsus (eyelids) , anatomy , byzantine architecture , gait , calcaneus , flexibility (engineering) , medicine , ankle , ancient history , history , surgery , physical medicine and rehabilitation , eyelid , statistics , mathematics
First described by Buffon in 1796, tarsal coalitions encompass any abnormal fibrous, cartilaginous, or bony coalition of any adjacent tarsal bones. Tarsal coalition results from developmental error or injury. Congenital tarsal coalitions arise early in gestation when fibrocartilaginous precursor tarsals fail to completely separate, with more extreme cases rarely occurring when the coalesced cartilage ossifies into fused bones during skeletal maturation (Cowell and Elener 1983). Milder, more common forms are subclinical and are often detected only as an incidental finding of medical imaging ordered for unrelated reasons, therefore the prevalence of tarsal coalition is unknown (Zaw and Calder 2010). However, large‐scale skeletal surveys of recent European‐Americans, recent South Africans of variable ancestry, and medieval Danes all yielded frequencies less than 4% (Case and Burnett 2012). More severe forms can entirely compromise normal mid‐ and rearfoot function and therefore disrupt gait and other locomotor behaviors (Zaw and Calder 2010, Case and Burnett 2012). We report here specimen EBND 6122, a nearly complete and totally, intricately synostotically fused left tarsus and metatarsals I–III recovered from the Byzantine monastery of St. Stephen's in Jerusalem (now the École Biblique et Archéologique Française and Couvent‐Saint Étienne), dating to the Fifth and Sixth Centuries CE. Because of the commingled skeletal deposition at this site, no other skeletal elements can be confidently associated with this individual's foot. We describe how this remarkable pathology affected the individual's gait; succinctly, lack of rear‐ and mid‐foot flexibility likely compromised the normal heel strike and midstance phases of the gait cycle. This specimen adds to the existing archaeological record of tarsal coalitions and is one of the most extreme examples of osseous tarsal coalition in either the clinical or archaeological literature. Support or Funding Information This work was supported by the University of Notre Dame and the Arkansas College of Osteopathic Medicine. This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal .