Computed tomographic measurements of the nasal sinuses and frontal bone in mummy-heads artificially deformed in infancy.

: The purpose of the present study was to ascertain whether artificial skull deformation, carried out during infancy, has an effect on the pneumatization of the frontal and maxillary sinuses and on the osseous structure of the frontal bone. Thus, two normal and 12 artificially deformed adult human skulls (12 males, two females) from the collection of pre-Columbian Peruvian skeletons and mummies in the Institute of Anthropology and Human Genetics (University of Munich) were investigated by computed tomography. These skulls had been excavated from four sites on the Peruvian coast: Las Trancas, Cahuachi. Pacatnamu, and Estaqueria. The volumes of the maxillary sinuses varied from 5.18 mL to 17.19 mL. Those of the frontal sinuses varied from zero to 6.21 mL. The artificial deformation of the skull, which occurred during infancy, had no influence on the size of the maxillary and frontal sinuses. There was also no difference in the average bone thickness of the os frontale; however, artificial deformation in infancy had an influence on the bone structure, resulting in a tremendous rarefication of the diploe of the frontal bones. Based on these findings we conclude that the various types of skull deformation instituted in infancy seem to exert no inhibitory effect on the pneumatization of either the frontal or maxillary sinuses.