73 Osteological evidence of achondroplasia in an individual from medieval Reusel, the Netherlands Catelijne I. Nater*, Frans C.W.J. Theuws, Andrea L. Waters-Rist Faculty of Achaeology, Leiden University, Netherlands ABSTRACT Archaeological excavaons in Reusel (North-Brabant, the Netherlands) revealed a medieval church and a cemetery (10th-15th century AD) with 493 interments. Among these was an adult individual with severely shortened limb bones resulng in a stature esmate of 112.6 to 117.8 ± 3.27 cm. The bones of this individual were not in anatomical posion, suggesng a secondary burial or disturbance of a primary burial when the first gothic church (15th century AD) was built. As a result, only a femur, humerus, ulna, clavicle, and paral pelvis were recovered. While the long bones of the upper and lower limbs are markedly shortened, and have addional morphological alteraons, the clavicle is of more normal size and morphology, suggesng the individual was affected by a form of disproporonate dwarfism. A differenal diagnosis finds the anomalies are most likely the result of the autosomally dominant mutaon achondroplasia, a genec disorder that occurs in about one in 10,000-40,000 births. Around thirty cases of achondroplasia have been reported in the archaeological record, with this individual being among the shortest yet documented. Examinaon of this individual contributes to our palaeopathological knowledge of dwarfism and sheds light on how Dutch medieval society regarded such individuals. J Paleopathol 26: 73–83, 2016. KEYWORDS Skeletal dysplasia; short-limbs; Middle Ages. Received 21 March 2016 • Accepted 09 July 2016 * Correspondence to: Catelijne I. Nater E-mail address: catelijne.nater@gmail.com 1. Introducon Archaeological excavaons in Reusel (North-Brabant, the Netherlands) (Fig. 1) revealed a medieval church and a cemetery with 493 interments, among which was an adult individual labelled G126 with markedly shortened limb bones of a size between 5.8 and 7.9 standard deviaons below the mean of cemetery populaon (G126 excluded). Due to disturbance of the original grave, only a right femur, right humerus, right ulna, left clavicle, and partial left pelvis were present. The aim of this study is to provide a differential diagnosis of the disease based on macroscopic and radiological analyses of skeletal morphology. 2. Materials and methods 2.1. Burial context The bones were found in a disturbed grave (number 126) next to the 15th century AD walls of a Gothic church (Fig. 2), meaning they had to have been deposited prior to this date. The cemetery to which the grave belongs was created around a wooden church in the middle or second half of the 10th century. The wooden church was replaced at the same locaon by a Romanesque church in tuff stone, probably in the 11th century AD (Van Kempen and Van der Kamp, 1998). One of the stragraphically oldest graves, to the west of the wooden church that was cut by the foundaon trenches of the Romanesque church,