A Dwarf or a Goiter?

This one’s for @Alice_Linsley

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Very interesting. I’ll post this for members of The Bible and Anthropology Forum. We were discussing the Ohio Valley Mounds earlier this week.

Thanks for calling this to my attention!

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Very interesting paper @Patrick

Since its discovery in 1901, at the Adena Burial Mound in Ross County, Ohio, archaeologists have theorized that the the 8-inch pipe statue – carved into the likeness of an Ohio Valley Native American – represented an achondroplastic dwarf (AD). People with achondroplasia typically have short arms and legs, an enlarged head, and an average-sized trunk, the same condition as Emmy Award-winning actor Peter Dinklage from HBO’s “Game of Thrones.”

From a medical perspective, Bauduer found the physical characteristics, such as the short forehead and long bones of the upper and lower limbs, simply not adding up as an achondroplastic dwarf.

“We found the tumor in the neck, as well as the figure’s squatted stance – not foreshortened legs as was formerly documented in the literature – were both signs and symptoms of thyroid disease,” says Tankersley.

"We already know that iodine deficiencies can lead to thyroid tumors, and the Ohio Valley area, where this artifact was found, has historically had iodine depleted soils and water relative to the advance of an Ice Age glacier about 300,000 years ago.

So from dwarf to iodine deficiency. Very nice. Do you see his goiter?

image

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