SHORT REPORT Like I Need a Hole in the Head: Supernumerary External Auditory Meatus in a Carthaginian Cranium D. A. LUKASZEK, a * J. D. IRISH, a A. BALZEAU b AND A. FROMENT c a Department of Anthropology, University of Alaska, Fairbanks AK 99709 b Equipe de Pale´ontologie Humaine, UMR 5198 du CRNS, USM 204, De´partement de Pre´histoire du Muse´um national d’histoire naturelle, Paris, France c Curator of Anthropology Collections, IRD, UR 200 Musee de l’Homme, Paris ABSTRACT Cranial anomalies vary in degree of expression. Although some are nominal i.e. slight in expression, other anomalies are quite striking in appearance. Such is the case in a cranium recovered from the archaeological site of Carthage in Tunisia. Based on observations during ongoing research by the second author, this specimen was seen to exhibit a twinned right external auditory meatus. Possible explanations for the presence of this anomaly are explored. Trauma and perhaps disease can likely be excluded; congenital or epigenetic variation is more of a probable cause. Copyright ß 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Key words: cranial anomalies; external auditory meatus; lesions; epigenetics; pathology Introduction Thousands of crania were observed during the course of an ongoing African dental morpho- logical study (Irish, 1993, 1997, 1998a,b,c,d, 2000, 2005, 2006). Some exhibit various anomalies, pathologies and forms of trauma (e.g. Irish et al., 1993, Pereira da Silva et al., 1995). In the present report, we describe a cranium presenting a supernumerary aperture. Although many cranial anomalies and epigenetic variants have been documented (e.g. Anderson, 1968, Berry & Berry, 1967, Hauser & De Stefano, 1989), ‘new’ ones occasionally crop up that are as intriguing as they are perplexing in origin. To our knowledge, this aperture has not been previously described in either the anthropological or medical literature. The cranium In this peculiar case, a cranium from a young adult male possesses two right external auditory meati (Figure 1). The specimen was recovered during the late 1800s from the site of Carthage, near Tunis, Tunisia, in a Punic period level (751?–146 BC) (Charles-Picard & Picard, 1968) by P. Delattre. Carthage, founded by the Phoenicians, came to rival Rome as a Mediterranean power until the armies of the former were defeated in the third Punic War (c. 149–146 BC) (Harden, 1939; Scarre, 1995). The specimen (#17328) is pre- sently curated in the Musee ´ de l’Homme, Paris. As can be seen in Figure 1, a normal external auditory meatus is present. However, a second aperture is located posterior to it, above the mastoid crest and near the parietal notch. It International Journal of Osteoarchaeology Int. J. Osteoarchaeol. (2009) Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com) DOI: 10.1002/oa.1030 * Correspondence to: 2618 Turner Street, Apt. 1, Fairbanks, Alaska, AK 99701, USA. e-mail: lukaszek_d@hotmail.com Copyright # 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Received 9 January 2008 Revised 5 September 2008 Accepted 22 September 2008