The Youngest Meningioma? A Historic Maya Adolescent From Tipu, Belize

Meningiomas are the most common tumours of the central nervous system. However, few well-accepted cases have been reported in the palaeopathological literature and usually only when hyperostosis co-occurs. We present a hyperostotic cranial lesion in an adolescent from the early historic population of Tipu in west central Belize. It fits most clinical and epidemiological patterns of meningeal expression in modern children, and differential diagnosis finds other possible conditions, including dietary deficiencies and genetic anaemias, unlikely. The often subtle characteristics of meningiomas, which can be both osteolytic and osteoblastic, need to be described in detail to differentiate them from other conditions, especially porotic hyperostosis. The Tipu case is the only nonadult example to correspond with published clinical and palaeopathological cases of the tumour.