Case report: A giant calcified uterus, likely due to benign leiomyoma

During the 2011 excavation of the site of St. Michael’s Litten, in Chichester, England, a female skeleton, dating to the post-Medieval period (1550–1850), with a large, unidentified pelvic mass was uncovered. The mass measured 16.4 H × 19.0 W × 24.3 L and was 66 cm in its greatest circumference; it weighed 3.32 kg. The skeleton presented with established osteoporosis and was estimated to be of an advanced age. The analytic methodology used to evaluate the mass was based on that of Kramar et al. (1983). Considering the results of these analyses, and through an extensive search of the relevant medical, historical and archaeological literature, it was determined that this mass was likely a neoplasm of reproductive origin, and was further defined as a calcified uterus containing a number of leiomyomas. To date, this is the largest of its kind ever found archaeologically.