Ecce Homo: Moving past labels to lives.

Objectives: We report a contemporary individual who died with advanced holoprosencephaly (HPE) to encourage recognition of rare diseases (RDs), especially congenital conditions in archaeological samples. We also explore the range of conditions associated with hydrocephalus in support of nuanced interpretations of this disease.

Materials: The skeleton of a 17-year-old male who died with clinically diagnosed HPE, along with an age and sex matched comparative sample of 6 individuals who suffered accidental death and who were normal.