While research is increasingly looking at the experience of children in the past, this is still an under-researched area, and in terms of children’s exposure to violence, while cases of exceptional mass events can be recognised in archaeology, subtler, systematic…
The diverse grave goods excavated at a 6th-century cemetery in Nottinghamshire testify to a wealthy community with wide-ranging trade links – but, as well as new objects and materials, did these networks help to spread deadly diseases, and might this explain the unusually high number of multiple burials identified at Broughton Lodge? Carly Hilts visited a new exhibition about the site and spoke to Ann Inscker, Professor Chris Loveluck, and Dr Clare Pickersgill to learn more.
Burials found in three different cemeteries in Sweden defied explanation until a connection with polio was proposed. Caroline Arcini and Emma Karlsson weigh the evidence and look at how the impact of this disease has changed over the centuries.
The text known as The Satire of the Trades extols the virtues of being a scribe compared to other jobs but, although not physically demanding, the positions and repetitive tasks involved could still take their toll on the body according…
One of the world’s earliest cases of rheumatoid arthritis has been found in the skeletal remains of a Nubian woman from the Pan-Grave culture (c.1800 BC) by the Aswan–Kom Ombo Archaeological Project (AKAP). In a recently published paper, the joint…
Baboons played an important role in ancient Egyptian ritual and were considered sacred, but their treatment when alive was poor according to new research from the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences in Brussels. The team analysed the bones of…
REVIEW BY ROGER FORSHAW This brief book by W Benson Harer discusses the controversial question of what caused the death of Tutankhamun, with the author strongly supporting the view that the king was killed by a hippopotamus. Within the publication…
Joannes Dekker, along with researchers from the Universities of York, Copenhagen, Chester, and Leiden, used a type of mass spectrometry to visualise the two-dimensional distribution of proteins in both archaeological and modern teeth. In this month’s ‘Science Notes’, we explore the results from this project.
A round-up of some of the latest archaeology news from around the world, including: evidence of an ear infection identified in 100,000-year-old remains; analysis of ancient Chinese bronze formulae; and a rethinking of how Cahokia's North Plaza was used.
The infection was identified in a hunter-gatherer who lived c.100,000 years ago, and was excavated from a cave in Morocco.
Analysis of the Pompeian individual's skeletal remains revealed they likely suffered from spinal tuberculosis.
‘We’ve been able to diagnose tuberculosis, a possible case of leprosy [a rare find for this period], and syphilis.’
Analysis of the remains of an elderly woman buried at the Dolmen of El Pendón, in northern Spain, has identified the earliest known evidence of successful ear surgery, 5,300 years ago. The skull was discovered by researchers from the University…
Archaeologists in Spain have unearthed a 5,300-year-old Neolithic skull bearing the earliest known evidence of ear surgery ‘in the history of humankind’. Since 2016, excavations at the Dolmen of El Pendón in Burgos, Spain, have shed light on a megalithic…
Radiocarbon dating has indicated that the skull is c.220 years old, making it possibly the earliest example currently known from the region
The young Neanderthal man, known as ‘Krijin’, lived between 50,000 and 70,000 years ago in Doggerland, the prehistoric landscape that lies subsumed in the North Sea.
Through radiographs and computed tomography (CT) scanning of human skeletons, cancerous lesions can be accurately identified...
More than a decade in the making, this book was well worth the wait. It is a thorough compendium of knowledge on not only the history and (bio)archaeology of leprosy, but also its epidemiology and evolution. At its heart, it…
Scientific analysis of a human skeleton discovered at Tarrant Hinton in Dorset has shed new light on life – and the transmission of infectious disease – in Iron Age Britain. The remains were originally found during excavations at a small…