Anaemia, chronic sinusitis, tooth decay are among the most commonly recognized diseases in children whose burials Polish bioarchaeologist investigated in the Egyptian necropolis dating back more than two thousand years at Saqqara, near the oldest pyramid in the world.
Excavations in the extensive Egyptian necropolis at Saqqara were conducted for nearly twenty years by Prof. Karol Myśliwiec of the Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental Cultures PAS. Currently the project leader is Dr. Kamil O. Kuraszkiewicz from the Department of Egyptology, University of Warsaw. Since the beginning, research at Saqqara is conducted under the auspices of the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology UW.
The biggest publicity had the discovery of beautifully decorated rock tombs of nobles from over 4 thousand years ago, from the Old Kingdom. Prof. Myśliwiec was awarded the Foundation for Polish Science Prizes, called Polish Nobel, for the publication documenting the discovery of the tomb of Merefnebef.
"Necropolis at Saqqara was founded about 6 thousand years ago, at the beginning of the so-called Old Kingdom, and remained in use almost continuously over the next few millennia. In contrast to the Old Kingdom period, after two thousand years, this area of the cemetery was used as a burial place for ordinary members of the community, and not just the elite, as before" - told PAP bioarchaeologist from the University of Manchester, Iwona Kozieradzka-Ogunmakin, who studied many of the discovered skeletons and mummies.
Burials of the Ptolemaic-Roman period (IV BC-I AD) were much more numerous and simple in form than those of the Old Kingdom - the dead were mostly buried directly in the desert sand. In total, archaeologists discovered more than half a thousand of such burials in the studied area of the necropolis.
Showing posts with label Diseases. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Diseases. Show all posts
Thursday, January 26, 2017
Sunday, January 24, 2016
Ancient Egyptian Diseases: Oldest Case of Scurvy?
Infant skeleton sheds light on ancient Egyptian diseases
By Robin Ngo • 01/22/2016
Despite its notoriety as a historical disease commonly associated with sailors, scurvy—a nutritional deficiency disease caused by a severe lack of vitamin C (ascorbic acid)—is still present in developed countries. For example, it was recently reported that a baby in Spain developed scurvy, possibly due to an almond milk-only diet.
How long has scurvy been around? According to a new study published in the International Journal of Paleopathology, the skeleton of an infant from the ancient Egyptian settlement of Nag el-Qarmila (c. 3800–3600 B.C.E.) may provide the earliest attested evidence of scurvy, thus helping researchers better understand ancient Egyptian diseases.
Bioarchaeologists Mindy Pitre and Robert Stark examined the skeleton of an infant who was about one year old. The researchers observed that the infant suffered from a deficiency in ascorbic acid (vitamin C), as demonstrated by tell-tale changes to different parts of the skeleton.
“While the cause of this infant’s probable scorbutic [i.e., related to scurvy] state is unknown, various circumstances such as diet and cultural behaviors may have contributed to the condition,” the researchers said in their study. “Given the current lack of evidence of scurvy from ancient Egyptian contexts, this case study informs on the antiquity of ascorbic acid deficiency in the Old World.”
The infant had been discovered during excavations at the Predynastic settlement of Nag el-Qarmila by the Aswan-Kom Ombo Archaeological Project, directed by Maria Carmela Gatto and Antonio Curci.
Source: http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/ancient-cultures/ancient-near-eastern-world/ancient-egyptian-diseases-oldest-case-of-scurvy/
By Robin Ngo • 01/22/2016
Despite its notoriety as a historical disease commonly associated with sailors, scurvy—a nutritional deficiency disease caused by a severe lack of vitamin C (ascorbic acid)—is still present in developed countries. For example, it was recently reported that a baby in Spain developed scurvy, possibly due to an almond milk-only diet.
How long has scurvy been around? According to a new study published in the International Journal of Paleopathology, the skeleton of an infant from the ancient Egyptian settlement of Nag el-Qarmila (c. 3800–3600 B.C.E.) may provide the earliest attested evidence of scurvy, thus helping researchers better understand ancient Egyptian diseases.
Bioarchaeologists Mindy Pitre and Robert Stark examined the skeleton of an infant who was about one year old. The researchers observed that the infant suffered from a deficiency in ascorbic acid (vitamin C), as demonstrated by tell-tale changes to different parts of the skeleton.
“While the cause of this infant’s probable scorbutic [i.e., related to scurvy] state is unknown, various circumstances such as diet and cultural behaviors may have contributed to the condition,” the researchers said in their study. “Given the current lack of evidence of scurvy from ancient Egyptian contexts, this case study informs on the antiquity of ascorbic acid deficiency in the Old World.”
The infant had been discovered during excavations at the Predynastic settlement of Nag el-Qarmila by the Aswan-Kom Ombo Archaeological Project, directed by Maria Carmela Gatto and Antonio Curci.
Source: http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/ancient-cultures/ancient-near-eastern-world/ancient-egyptian-diseases-oldest-case-of-scurvy/
Sunday, January 3, 2016
Launch of the world's largest study of Egyptian mummies
Researchers will study more than 40 ancient human and animal mummies as part of the Warsaw Mummy Project, which was launched in Otwock. The study will give a chance to find traces of diseases occurring in antiquity.
The authors of the project are Polish archaeologists and bioarchaeologists, PhD students at the University of Warsaw: Wojciech Ejsmond, Kamils Braulińska and Marzena Ożarek-Szilke. The project is carried out in close cooperation with the National Museum in Warsaw, in the care of which the mummies are.
The Warsaw Mummy Project is the world’s largest interdisciplinary academic initiative devoted to the study of ancient mummies.
Scientists will first check whether the mummies are authentic and what they contain. "Especially in the case of mummified animals we know that bundles often contain only parts of animals - such mummies were mass produced and sold to pilgrims as votive offerings for the gods in the temples" - told PAP Marzena Ożarek-Szilke.
The study will also answer questions about the species, sex and age of the mummies, but above all give a chance to find traces of diseases occurring in antiquity, including bone diseases, metabolic disorders, infectious, vascular, parasitic diseases, and in particular cancer.
The authors of the project are Polish archaeologists and bioarchaeologists, PhD students at the University of Warsaw: Wojciech Ejsmond, Kamils Braulińska and Marzena Ożarek-Szilke. The project is carried out in close cooperation with the National Museum in Warsaw, in the care of which the mummies are.
The Warsaw Mummy Project is the world’s largest interdisciplinary academic initiative devoted to the study of ancient mummies.
Scientists will first check whether the mummies are authentic and what they contain. "Especially in the case of mummified animals we know that bundles often contain only parts of animals - such mummies were mass produced and sold to pilgrims as votive offerings for the gods in the temples" - told PAP Marzena Ożarek-Szilke.
The study will also answer questions about the species, sex and age of the mummies, but above all give a chance to find traces of diseases occurring in antiquity, including bone diseases, metabolic disorders, infectious, vascular, parasitic diseases, and in particular cancer.
Sunday, August 30, 2015
Ancient Mummy Has Oldest Case Of Heart Failure
By Rossella Lorenzi
The oldest case of acute decompensated heart failure has been found in 3,500-year-old mummified remains, a research team announced at the international congress of Egyptology in Florence.
Consisting of just a head and canopic jars containing internal organs, the remains were found in a plundered tomb by the Italian Egyptologist Ernesto Schiaparelli in 1904 in the Valley of the Queens, Luxor, and are now housed at the Egyptian Museum in Turin.
They belong to an Egyptian dignitary named Nebiri, a “Chief of Stables” who lived under the reign of 18th Dynasty pharaoh Thutmoses III (1479-1424 BC).
“The head is almost completely unwrapped, but in a good state of preservation. Since the canopic jar inscribed for Hapy, the guardian of the lungs, is partially broken, we were allowed direct access for sampling,” Raffaella Bianucci, an anthropologist in the legal medicine section at the University of Turin, told Discovery News.
She investigated the mummified remains with researchers from the Universities of Turin, Munich and York.
Detailing the findings at the conference, Bianucci reported that Nebiri was middle aged — 45 to 60 years old — when he died and that he was affected by a severe periodontal disease with massive abscesses, as revealed by Multidetector Computed Tomography (MDCT) and three dimensional skull reconstruction.
The scans showed there was a partial attempt at excerebration (removal of the brain), but a considerable amount of dehydrated brain tissue is still preserved. Linen is packed in the inner skull, eyes, nose, ears, mouth and even fill the cheeks.
The oldest case of acute decompensated heart failure has been found in 3,500-year-old mummified remains, a research team announced at the international congress of Egyptology in Florence.
Consisting of just a head and canopic jars containing internal organs, the remains were found in a plundered tomb by the Italian Egyptologist Ernesto Schiaparelli in 1904 in the Valley of the Queens, Luxor, and are now housed at the Egyptian Museum in Turin.
They belong to an Egyptian dignitary named Nebiri, a “Chief of Stables” who lived under the reign of 18th Dynasty pharaoh Thutmoses III (1479-1424 BC).
“The head is almost completely unwrapped, but in a good state of preservation. Since the canopic jar inscribed for Hapy, the guardian of the lungs, is partially broken, we were allowed direct access for sampling,” Raffaella Bianucci, an anthropologist in the legal medicine section at the University of Turin, told Discovery News.
She investigated the mummified remains with researchers from the Universities of Turin, Munich and York.
Detailing the findings at the conference, Bianucci reported that Nebiri was middle aged — 45 to 60 years old — when he died and that he was affected by a severe periodontal disease with massive abscesses, as revealed by Multidetector Computed Tomography (MDCT) and three dimensional skull reconstruction.
The scans showed there was a partial attempt at excerebration (removal of the brain), but a considerable amount of dehydrated brain tissue is still preserved. Linen is packed in the inner skull, eyes, nose, ears, mouth and even fill the cheeks.
Tuesday, November 18, 2014
Stanford archaeologist leads the first detailed study of human remains at the ancient Egyptian site of Deir el-Medina
By combining an analysis of written artifacts with a study of skeletal remains, Stanford postdoctoral scholar Anne Austin is creating a detailed picture of care and medicine in the ancient world.
By Barbara Wilcox
Ancient Egyptian workers in a village that's now called Deir el-Medina were beneficiaries of what Stanford Egyptologist Anne Austin calls "the earliest documented governmental health care plan."
The craftsmen who built Egyptian pharaohs' royal tombs across the Nile from the modern city of Luxor worked under grueling conditions, but they could also take a paid sick day or visit a "clinic" for a free checkup.
For decades, Egyptologists have seen evidence of these health care benefits in the well preserved written records from the site, but Austin, a specialist in osteo-archaeology (the study of ancient bones), led the first detailed study of human remains at the site.
A postdoctoral scholar in the Department of History, Austin compared Deir el-Medina's well-known textual artifacts to physical evidence of health and disease to create a newly comprehensive picture of how Egyptian workers lived. Austin is continuing her research during her tenure as a fellow in the Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship of Scholars in the Humanities.
In skeletal remains that she found in the village's cemeteries, Austin saw "evidence for state-subsidized health care among these workers, but also significant occupational stress fueled by pressure from the state to work."
Tuesday, October 21, 2014
King Tut's Health: New Mummy Scans Refute Old Diagnosis of Pharaohs
by Stephanie Pappas, Live Science Contributor | October 21, 2014
The royalty of ancient Egypt suffered from an age-related back disorder, according to a new body scan of the mummies of pharaohs.
The new research clears up a long-standing mummy misdiagnosis, which held that some rulers who lived between about 1492 B.C. and 1153 B.C. had a painful inflammatory disorder called ankylosing spondylitis. This disease would have fused their vertebrae together starting from an early age.
"We are now questioning the reality that ankylosing spondylitis is actually an ancient disease," said study researcher Sahar Saleem of the Kasr Al Ainy Faculty of Medicine in Cairo. Whether it is an ancient disease or not, the altered diagnosis suggests that famed pharaohs, including Ramesses the Great, did not live out their final years in great pain. Instead, their disorder was likely asymptomatic, Saleem told Live Science.
Pharaoh's backbone
The mummies of the 18th, 19th and 20th Dynasties of ancient Egypt are incredibly well-preserved. These were the gilded times of such rulers as the 18th-dynasty boy king Tutankhamun, whose ornate burial mask is a universal symbol of ancient Egypt, and the 19th-dynasty pharaoh Ramesses II, also called "the Great" because of his military success and soaring monuments.
The royalty of ancient Egypt suffered from an age-related back disorder, according to a new body scan of the mummies of pharaohs.
The new research clears up a long-standing mummy misdiagnosis, which held that some rulers who lived between about 1492 B.C. and 1153 B.C. had a painful inflammatory disorder called ankylosing spondylitis. This disease would have fused their vertebrae together starting from an early age.
"We are now questioning the reality that ankylosing spondylitis is actually an ancient disease," said study researcher Sahar Saleem of the Kasr Al Ainy Faculty of Medicine in Cairo. Whether it is an ancient disease or not, the altered diagnosis suggests that famed pharaohs, including Ramesses the Great, did not live out their final years in great pain. Instead, their disorder was likely asymptomatic, Saleem told Live Science.
Pharaoh's backbone
The mummies of the 18th, 19th and 20th Dynasties of ancient Egypt are incredibly well-preserved. These were the gilded times of such rulers as the 18th-dynasty boy king Tutankhamun, whose ornate burial mask is a universal symbol of ancient Egypt, and the 19th-dynasty pharaoh Ramesses II, also called "the Great" because of his military success and soaring monuments.
Saturday, June 14, 2014
Ancient Egyptian remedies
Does modern medicine have anything to learn from the medicine of the ancient Egyptians, asks Mai Samih
The ancient Egyptians, who embalmed their deceased so carefully, must have had a profound knowledge of anatomy. This is shown in tomb reliefs depicting surgeons dealing with patients and in famous medical texts such as those in the ancient Egyptian Ebers and Edwin Smith papyri.
The ancient Greek historian Herodotus who visited Egypt around 440 BCE wrote extensively of his observations of ancient Egyptian medical practices. The Roman writer Pliny the Elder also wrote favourably of them in his historical works. The ancient Greek fathers of medicine, Hippocrates, Herophilos, Erasistratus and later Galen, all studied at the temple of Amenhotep in Egypt and acknowledged the contributions of the ancient Egyptians to Greek medicine.
In his book Life of the Ancient Egyptians, author Eugen Strouhal quotes Herodotus describing Egyptian doctors by saying that “the practice of medicine is so divided among them that each physician treats one disease and no more. There are plenty of physicians everywhere; some are eye doctors, some deal with the heart, others with the teeth or the belly, and some with hidden maladies.”
Belgian Scholar Frans Jonckheere writes that there were 82 kinds of doctors known by name in ancient Egypt. No female nurses existed to help these doctors, but there were male nurses, dressers, masseurs, and lay therapists there for help. Czech physician Vincenc Strouhal wrote that the most advanced branch of medicine in ancient Egypt was surgery.
The ancient Egyptians, who embalmed their deceased so carefully, must have had a profound knowledge of anatomy. This is shown in tomb reliefs depicting surgeons dealing with patients and in famous medical texts such as those in the ancient Egyptian Ebers and Edwin Smith papyri.
The ancient Greek historian Herodotus who visited Egypt around 440 BCE wrote extensively of his observations of ancient Egyptian medical practices. The Roman writer Pliny the Elder also wrote favourably of them in his historical works. The ancient Greek fathers of medicine, Hippocrates, Herophilos, Erasistratus and later Galen, all studied at the temple of Amenhotep in Egypt and acknowledged the contributions of the ancient Egyptians to Greek medicine.
In his book Life of the Ancient Egyptians, author Eugen Strouhal quotes Herodotus describing Egyptian doctors by saying that “the practice of medicine is so divided among them that each physician treats one disease and no more. There are plenty of physicians everywhere; some are eye doctors, some deal with the heart, others with the teeth or the belly, and some with hidden maladies.”
Belgian Scholar Frans Jonckheere writes that there were 82 kinds of doctors known by name in ancient Egypt. No female nurses existed to help these doctors, but there were male nurses, dressers, masseurs, and lay therapists there for help. Czech physician Vincenc Strouhal wrote that the most advanced branch of medicine in ancient Egypt was surgery.
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