SHORT REPORT A Possible Case of an Ossifying Fibroma in a Late Neolithic Population from Portugal A. M. SILVA* AND S. N. WASTERLAIN Centro de Investigac ¸a˜o em Antropologia e Sau´de, Department of Anthropology, University of Coimbra, 3000-056 Coimbra, Portugal ABSTRACT This paper discusses the differential diagnosis of an unusual bone tumour observed in the right maxilla of one adult calvarium, from the Late Neolithic collective burial of Lapa do Bugio (Sesimbra, Portugal). The differential diagnosis of the lesion gave rise to several possible pathological conditions, namely, ossifying fibroma, fibrous dysplasia, and focal cemento- osseous dysplasia. Despite the impossibility of performing histological analysis, various macroscopic and radiological aspects lead us to consider ossifying fibroma as the most probable diagnose. This appears to be the earliest reported case of this condition in the osteoarchaeological literature, and adds to the very few palaeopathological case descriptions available for ossifying fibroma. Copyright ß 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Key words: cemento-ossifying fibroma; fibro-osseous lesions; benign tumour; Late Neolithic; Portugal Case report The remains under analysis were recovered from the natural cave of Lapa do Bugio (Sesimbra, Portugal), which dates from the Late Neolithic period. One incomplete adult calvarium contains a bony overgrowth in the molar-bearing area of the right maxilla. The exuberant nature and rareness of the lesion as well as the scarcity of reports in the palaeopathological literature, led us to make the differential diagnosis, which we report in this paper. Archaeological background Lapa do Bugio is a small natural cave (long axis of 9 m; maximum width of 5.5 m), located in a limestone cliff, in Azo ´ ia, Sesimbra (around 40 km south of Lisbon), hanging over the sea. The cave was discovered in 1957 by Rafael Monteiro, and first reported in 1959 by Monteiro and Cunha Serra ˜o (Monteiro & Serra ˜o, 1959). Several archaeological excavations took place between the late 1950s and the 1960s. The archaeological deposits inside the cave were found to be very disturbed due to human and animal activity both in ancient and modern times (Isidoro, 1964; Monteiro et al., 1971). All the human remains recovered up to 1962 were found to be very fragmentary, commingled, and without any anatomical connection. Nowa- days, these are curated in the Museu Municipal de Sesimbra and in the Museu de Histo ´ria Natural of the University of Porto. In the 1967 excavation, ten primary burials and an ossuary were found (Monteiro et al., 1971). However, until now it has not been possible to locate these last human International Journal of Osteoarchaeology Int. J. Osteoarchaeol. (2009) Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com) DOI: 10.1002/oa.1059 * Correspondence to: Departamento de Antropologia, Universi- dade de Coimbra, 3000-056 Coimbra, Portugal. e-mail: amgsilva@antrop.uc.pt Copyright # 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Received 27 June 2008 Revised 19 November 2008 Accepted 19 November 2008