Basilar clefting: a familial condition?

Excavation at the deserted medieval village of Quattro Macine, Apulia revealed two ruined churches and associated cemeteries of stone-lined tombs. Typically, a tomb contained an articulated burial and bundles of disarticulated bone, no doubt, representing family tombs that were re-opened several times during the medieval period. In one tomb, two examples of basilar clefting, a manifestation of occipital vertebra, were recorded. Apparently, this rare condition has not been recorded in archaeological material. Its presence in two individuals from the same grave is the first evidence that there is a genetic component in this rare anatomical variant.