Abstract
The figurative arts and precisely the ancient Pompeian wall paintings portraits can provide an additional source of information in supplementing bio-anthropological studies. There are several genetic diseases with a wide spectrum of congenital bone stigmata in association to distinctive facial features. Gorlin–Goltz syndrome, also named nevoid basal cell carcinoma syndrome, is an autosomal dominant syndrome characterized by unusual skeletal changes, such as macrocephaly, facial asymmetry, hypertelorism, frontal and parietal bossing caused by germline mutations of the gene PTCH1. The Gorlin syndrome, clinically defined in 1963, existed during Dynastic Egyptian times, as revealed by a spectrum of skeletal findings compatible with the syndrome in mummies dating back to three thousand years ago and, most likely, in the ancient population of Pompeii. In the present research, we discuss the potential relationship between Pompeian wall paintings portrait and the cranio-metric bone changes revealed among the Pompeian skull collections assuming that the ancient portraits can constitute an important tool that should be strictly integrated with osteologic and biomolecular data in order to argue a syndromic diagnosis in ancient population.
Highlights
Figurative art is closely linked to disease through disease affecting subjects of paintings
See for example the wall painting portraits of Pasquius Proculis and his wife, which is emblematic of Abbreviations: AD, Anno Domini; NBCCS, Nevoid basal cell carcinoma syndrome; CTscan, Computer tomography
The relatively high frequency of frontal bossing in wall painting portraits should be critically interpreted in order to argue an NBCCS phenotype among the ancient population
Summary
Figurative art is closely linked to disease through disease affecting subjects of paintings. Several genetic syndromes present distinctive skeletal semeiological signs; for example, facial asymmetry, hypertelorism, frontal and parietal bossing typically affect the facies of patients carrying a germline mutation of PTCH1 gene This genetic signature belongs to patients with Gorlin–Goltz syndrome, named nevoid basal cell carcinoma syndrome (NBCCS), and features an autosomal dominant systemic disease with almost complete penetrance and high intra-familial phenotypic variability. At the archaeological bone collection of Pompeii, our recent analysis conducted on the about 200 skulls stored in both the Forum Baths and Sarno Baths allowed to define a significant heterogeneity of the anthropometric cranial parameters as such as a vast percentage of dolicocranic skulls with some individuals having hyperdolicocranic skulls It was among the dolicocranic and hyperdolicocranic portion of the population that some skulls presented different non-metric traits, such as frontoparietal bossing and macrocephaly, characteristics of the NBCCS (Fig. 2). This hypothesis can be evaluated by the analysis of the somatic traits of wall paintings and mosaic portrait of Pompeian local models
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