SHORT REPORT A Sacral Anomaly from the Quaker Cemetery, Kingston-upon- Thames, England MINDY C. PITRE a AND NANCY C. LOVELL b * a Archaeology Unit, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St John’s, NL, Canada b Department of Anthropology, 13-15 HM Tory Building, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada ABSTRACT A rare defect of the sacrum was observed in the skeleton of an adult female from the Quaker Cemetery (1663–1814 CE) in Kingston-upon-Thames, England. This is an isolated finding in the skeletal collection and no other elements in this individual were similarly affected. After eliminating post-depositional damage and skeletal asymmetry, a differential diagnosis resulted in the consideration of two conditions: hemivertebra and sacral agenesis, both of which are rare developmental defects that originate during foetal growth. Although the defect is interesting from an embryological, genetic and palaeopathological perspective, it would have resulted in few clinical symptoms for the individual. This case adds to the limited knowledge of the morphological variability of the sacrum, and will aid in future diagnoses of these rare pathological conditions. Copyright ß 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Key words: sacrum; agenesis; hemivertebra Introduction In 1996, land development necessitated the excavation of an historic burial ground that had been established in 1663, and used until 1814, by the Society of Friends (more commonly known as Quakers) at London Road, Kingston–upon- Thames (Bashford & Pollard, 1998; Bashford & Sibun, 2007). The skeletal remains of 360 individuals were removed over a period of ten weeks and the remains of 308 individuals were repatriated after osteological analyses were conducted (Start & Kirk, 1998). Determination of sex and estimation of age at death followed the methods described by Buikstra and Ubelaker (1994). Modern-day Quakers granted Bourne- mouth University permission to withhold the remains of 52 individuals for curation and analysis. During this analysis, an abnormally shaped sacrum was discovered in the skeleton of a female who was more than 45 years old. The purpose of this short note is to describe the anomaly and to consider possible diagnoses in order to contribute to the literature on palaeo- pathological conditions in the vertebral column. The vertebral column, including the sacrum, is a part of the skeleton that often presents developmental anomalies that are thought to result from combinations of environment and genetics. These anomalies range from relatively asymptomatic variants, such as cranial and caudal shifting at the sacrocaudal border, to neural tube International Journal of Osteoarchaeology Int. J. Osteoarchaeol. (2009) Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com) DOI: 10.1002/oa.1034 * Correspondence to: Department of Anthropology, 13-15 Tory Building, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, T6G 2H4. e-mail: nlovell@ualberta.ca Copyright # 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Received 21 August 2008 Revised 26 September 2008 Accepted 1 October 2008