Pectus excavatum in relief from Ancient Egypt (dating back to circa 2400 BC)

The authors analysed 621 reliefs, sculptures and paintings from Ancient Egypt looking for anatomical defects of the chest. They found a relief dated back to 2400 BC, depicting a man with an abnormal shape of the chest similar to a pectus excavatum. The authors opened the debate on the occurrence of this deformity in ancient times.