The results of this study clearly implicate typhoid fever as a probable cause of the Plague of Athens.

The current report of a patient with oligodontia and an inversion on chromosome 2 may aid in the identification of novel genes for oligodontia.

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Interpreted with caution, the results of the present study, which can serve as an approach of paleopathology and paleoradiology, indicate similarity trends in cranial configuration of pathologic origin in modern and ancient people. Radiography and cephalometry were the main diagnostic tools used to gather evidence and are evaluated as a quite appropriate method to examine anthropological material and assess the internal structure of skeletal remains since they are non-destructive techniques.

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Although modern standards of ideal proportions and facial esthetics are based mostly on observations of human faces as depicted in Classical Greek masterpieces of art, the real faces of ordinary ancient Greeks have, until now, remained elusive and subject to the imagination. Objective forensic techniques of facial reconstruction have never been applied before, because human skeletal material from Classical Greece has been extremely scarce, since most decent burials of that time required cremation. Here, the authors show stage by stage the facial reconstruction of an 11-year-old girl whose skull was unearthed in excellent condition from a mass grave with victims of the Plague that struck Athens of 430 BC. The original skull was replicated via three-dimensional modeling and rapid prototyping techniques. The reconstruction followed the Manchester method, laying the facial tissues from the surface of the skull outward by using depthmarker pegs as thickness guides. The shape, size, and position of the eyes, ears, nose, and mouth were determined according to features of the underlying skeletal tissues, whereas the hairstyle followed the fashion of the time. This is the first case of facial reconstruction of a layperson residing in Athens of the Golden Age of Pericles. It is ironic, however, that this unfortunate girl who lived such a short life in ancient Athens, will now, 2500 years later, have the chance to travel and be universally recognizable in a world much bigger than anybody in ancient Athens could have ever imagined. (Angle Orthod. 2011;81:169-177.)

4 ), the recommendation of phylogenetic verification of results continues to be ignored, despite the relative simplicity and lack of expense of such tests, particularly in comparison to experimental procedures. It should be noted that many of the most embarrassing mistakes in the ancient DNA literature (including the incorrect report of dinosaur DNA in the early 1990s 5 ) could have been avoided with a simple phylogenetic test.Conflict of interest: No conflict of interest to declare.

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