Egypt
- Egyptologists Revisit A Founding Father
Manchester University The University of Manchester and the Natural History Museum in London are to revisit the work of anthropologist Sir Grafton Elliot Smith and set up a publicly available website on his excellent but as yet overlooked work. The team,...
- Priests Ate Like Gods – And Paid By Dying Young
Manchester University The splendid banquets offered to ancient Egyptian gods may have been delicious and bountiful but they were also a killer, blocking the arteries of the high priests who made the offerings in the temples then took them home to their...
- In The Lab: Results From Mummy Scans From Cairo Museum
Los Angeles Times (Thomas H. Maugh II) With photos. CT scans of Egyptian mummies, some as much as 3,500 years old, shows evidence of atherosclerosis or hardening of the arteries, which is normally thought of as a disease caused by modern lifestyles, researchers...
- Un Nuclear Agency Helps Unlock Secrets Of Mummies
IAEA Was King Tut really murdered? Did the Great Pharoah Ramesses II die from a disease of the spine? The answers to these age-old mysteries are locked inside Egyptian mummies. Today, they are being unravelled through the modern science of "paleoradiology"....
- New Book: Egyptian Mummies And Modern Science
The University of Manchester About half way down the page: Edited by the Director of the KNH Centre, Rosalie David, the book aims to show how the team's investigative methods are being used for new international research into disease evolution and...
Egypt
Atherosclerosis and diet in ancient Egypt
The Lancet
Thanks to Tony Cagle's Archaeoblog for this link.
The Lancet, Volume 375, Issue 9716, Pages 718 - 719, 27 February 2010
Thanks to Tony Cagle's Archaeoblog for this link.
The Lancet, Volume 375, Issue 9716, Pages 718 - 719, 27 February 2010
Rosalie David, Amie Kershaw and Anthony Heagerty
Atherosclerosis is often considered a modern disease, yet it is evident in the remains of many ancient Egyptians. The mummification process was usually done for the more affluent members of society, and a rich legacy of archaeological and literary evidence, as well as the pathology preserved in both skeletal and mummified remains, has enabled disease studies to be undertaken. These studies not only provide information about this early society, but also establish a historical context for diseases found in modern populations.
Atherosclerosis and vascular calcification are usually regarded as circulatory phenotypes associated with advanced modern lifestyles. However, although rare, such conditions have been identified in human remains from some early societies. Examples occur in an elite Chinese burial (c. 700 BCE), and among Canadian Eskimos (c. 400 CE to c. 1520 CE) whose diet was almost entirely meat. They have also been reported since the early 20th century in the mummified remains of the rulers and elite of ancient Egypt. Marc Ruffer described arterial lesions in hundreds of Egyptian mummies in 1911 and Graham Shattock noted atheromatous deposits in the aorta of King Menephtah in 1909; these findings were later confirmed by John Harris and Edward Wente's radiological survey in 1980, which additionally reported vascular calcification in the mummies of Ramesses II, Ramesses III, Sethos I, Ramesses V, and Ramesses VI..
- Egyptologists Revisit A Founding Father
Manchester University The University of Manchester and the Natural History Museum in London are to revisit the work of anthropologist Sir Grafton Elliot Smith and set up a publicly available website on his excellent but as yet overlooked work. The team,...
- Priests Ate Like Gods – And Paid By Dying Young
Manchester University The splendid banquets offered to ancient Egyptian gods may have been delicious and bountiful but they were also a killer, blocking the arteries of the high priests who made the offerings in the temples then took them home to their...
- In The Lab: Results From Mummy Scans From Cairo Museum
Los Angeles Times (Thomas H. Maugh II) With photos. CT scans of Egyptian mummies, some as much as 3,500 years old, shows evidence of atherosclerosis or hardening of the arteries, which is normally thought of as a disease caused by modern lifestyles, researchers...
- Un Nuclear Agency Helps Unlock Secrets Of Mummies
IAEA Was King Tut really murdered? Did the Great Pharoah Ramesses II die from a disease of the spine? The answers to these age-old mysteries are locked inside Egyptian mummies. Today, they are being unravelled through the modern science of "paleoradiology"....
- New Book: Egyptian Mummies And Modern Science
The University of Manchester About half way down the page: Edited by the Director of the KNH Centre, Rosalie David, the book aims to show how the team's investigative methods are being used for new international research into disease evolution and...