| Abstract: |
This communication documents one of the earliest verifiable cases of human paralysis associated with severe spinal pathology A series of skeletal abnormalities is described for a young adult male (M9) from a Southeast Asian Neolithic community Differential diagnosis suggests that M9 suffered from a severely disabling congenital fusion of the spine (Klippel-Feil Syndrome, Type III), resulting, in child-onset lower body paralysis at a minimum (maximally quadriplegia). M9 experienced severe, most probably total, incapacitation for at least a decade prior to death In the prehistoric context, this individual's condition would have rendered him completely dependent oil others for survival.
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