Abstract

Since the beginning of the 20th century, different investigations in human mummies fromthe fertile coast of northern Chile have reported the appearance of a bone growth indistinctlycalled osteoma or exostoses in the external auditory channel (EAC) of prehistoric skulls.Subsequent works defined this excrescence as exostoses, based on the radiological study ofthe tissues and its bilateral appearance due to reactive growth, based on an environmentalhypothesis due to continuous exposure to the cold temperatures of the coastal edge mainlydue to fishing and underwater diving for survival during prehistory. At the end of the 20thcentury, we used conventional radiology to study a group of maritime workers from theport of Arica, divers, and fishermen who worked in the same geographical place whereexostoses were reported in the EAC of mummies in northern Chile. For the radiologicalanalysis, the number of exostoses and their location were considered, determining thefrequencies and subjecting them to statistical tests, comparing them with a control groupof people who did not work at sea. This article rescues the unpublished data of this seriesof cases of contemporary population and provides radiological evidence to compare withthe series of data on local prehistoric population. We conclude that the higher frequency ofexostoses in the EAC of current divers and fishermen when compared to the control group,as well as its greater bilateral appearance, allow us to support the hypothesis of exposure tothe cold of the maritime environment as the cause of this reactive bone growth of the EAC.