Cleft palate and lip an Ottoman-period man

Abstract

Cleft palate and lip develop as a result of any disruption in the formation of palate and lip during the first 12 weeks of embryological development. Besides the heredity, there also are cases suggesting that this deformation was caused by the problems, which the mother has experienced during the pregnancy period. In addition to the nutritional problems, this defect causes many other problems such as dental problems and infectious and psychological disorders. This defect is not a very commonly observed palaeopathological finding in studies carried out on archeological human skeletal remains. Cleft palate and lip were detected on the skull of a man constituting the study material, which was labeled with the number 1178 and dated to the Ottoman period. In literature, the first cleft palate and lip found in Anatolian archeological human skeletal remains were found in this individual. Computed Tomography images were taken for the skull, on which cleft palate and lip were found, and the analyses were conducted by obtaining the 3D image by making use of a 3D laser scanner. For the control group consisting of 20 individuals from the same community, 22 metric measurements were performed on the skulls by making use of the Materialise MiniMagics software. In this individual, nasal septum deviation has developed because of the effects of cleft palate and lip defects.