Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-45l2p Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-30T00:09:18.768Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

8 - Calcified Structures as Potential Evidence of Atherosclerosis Associated with Human Skeletal Remains from Amara West, Nubia (1300–800 BCE)

from Part II - Cardiovascular Diseases Associated with Human Skeletal Remains

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 March 2023

By
Michaela Binder  and
Charlotte A. Roberts
Edited by
Michaela Binder ,
Charlotte A. Roberts  and
Daniel Antoine
Michaela Binder
Affiliation:
Novetus GmbH Archaeological Services
Charlotte A. Roberts
Affiliation:
Durham University
Daniel Antoine
Affiliation:
British Museum, London
Get access

Summary

The Papyrus Ebers, written in ancient Egypt in c. 1550 BCE, provides the earliest known historic medical description of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), likely attesting to the widespread occurrence of these conditions (Nunn, 1996: 85–7). However, evidence to prove that they were indeed a frequent health problem in antiquity remains scarce and confined to mummified remains despite the multitude of human remains discovered and analysed since the beginning of archaeological exploration of the Nile Valley (Davies & Walker, 1993; Binder 2019).

Type
Chapter
Information
The Bioarchaeology of Cardiovascular Disease , pp. 147 - 163
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allam, A. H., Thompson, R. C., Wann, L. S., Miyamoto, M. I. and Thomas, G. S. (2009). Computed tomographic assessment of atherosclerosis in ancient Egyptian mummies. Journal of the American Medical Association, 302(19), 2091–4.Google ScholarPubMed
Aufderheide, A. C. and Rodríguez-Martín, C. (1998). The Cambridge Encyclopaedia of Human Paleopathology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bartova, J., Sommerova, P., Lyuya-Mi, , et al. (2014). Periodontitis as a risk factor of atherosclerosis. Journal of Immunology Research, 2014, 636893.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Beck, J. D. and Offenbacher, S. (2001). The association between periodontal diseases and cardiovascular diseases: A state-of-the-science review. Annals of Periodontology, 6(1), 9–15.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Binder, M. (2011). The tenth–nineth century BC: New evidence from Cemetery C of Amara West. Sudan and Nubia, 15, 39–53.Google Scholar
Binder, M. (2014). Health and diet in Upper Nubia through climate and political change: A bioarchaeological investigation of health and living conditions at ancient Amara West between 1300 and 800BC. Unpublished PhD thesis, Durham University.Google Scholar
Binder, M. (2017). The New Kingdom cemeteries at Amara West. In Spencer, N., Stevens, A. and Binder, M., eds., Nubia in the New Kingdom: Lived Experience, Pharaonic Control and Indigenous Traditions. Proceedings of the Annual Egyptological Colloquium, British Museum 11–12 July 2013. Leuven: Peeters, pp. 589–612.Google Scholar
Binder, M. (2019). The role of physical anthropology in Nubian archaeology. In Raue, D., ed., The Handbook of Nubian Archaeology. Berlin: DeGruyter, pp. 103–28.Google Scholar
Binder, M. and Spencer, N. (2014). The bioarchaeology of Amara West in Nubia: Investigating the impacts of political, cultural and environmental change on health and diet. In Fletcher, A., Antoine, D. and Hill, J. D., eds., Regarding the Dead. London: British Museum Press, pp. 125–39.Google Scholar
Binder, M., Spencer, N. and Millet, M. (2011). Cemetery D at Amara West: The Ramesside Period and its aftermath. British Museum Studies in Ancient Egypt and Sudan, 16, 47–99.Google Scholar
Brickley, M. and McKinley, J. I. (eds.) (2004). Guidelines to the Standards for Recording Human Remains. Reading: Institute of Field Archaeologists.Google Scholar
Brooks, S. and Suchey, J. M. (1990). Skeletal age determination based on the os pubis: A comparison of the Acsádi–Nemeskéri and Suchey–Brooks methods. Human Evolution, 5(3), 227–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brothwell, D. R. (1981). Digging Up Bones. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Bruzek, J. (2002). A method for visual determination of sex, using the human hip bone. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 117(2), 157–68.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Buikstra, J. E. (ed.) (2019). Ortner’s Identification of Pathological Conditions in Human Skeletal Remains, 3rd ed. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Buikstra, J. E. and Ubelaker, D. H. (1994). Standards for Data Collection from Human Remains. Lafayetteville, AK: Arkansas Archaeological Survey.Google Scholar
Buzon, M. R. (2006). Health of the non-elites at Tombos: Nutritional and disease stress in New Kingdom Nubia. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 130(1), 26–37.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Centers for Disease Control. (2010). Cardiovascular diseases. In How Tobacco Smoke Causes Disease: The Biology and Behavioral Basis for Smoking-Attributable Disease. A Report of the Surgeon General. Atlanta, GA: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Available at www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK53012/Google Scholar
Davies, W. V. and Walker, R. (eds.) (1993). Biological Anthropology and the Study of Ancient Egypt. London: British Museum Press.Google Scholar
Davies-Barrett, A., Antoine, D. and Roberts, C. A. (2019). Inflammatory periosteal reaction on ribs associated with lower respiratory tract disease: A method for recording prevalence from sites with differing preservation. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 15(3), 530–42.Google Scholar
Danielsen, P. H., Moller, P., Jensen, K. A., et al. (2011). Oxidative stress, DNA damage, and inflammation induced by ambient air and wood smoke particulate matter in human A549 and THP-1 cell lines. Chemical Research in Toxicology, 24, 168–84.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dupras, T. L., Williams, L. J., Willems, H. and Peeters, C. (2010). Pathological skeletal remains from ancient Egypt: The earliest case of diabetes mellitus? Practical Diabetes International, 27, 358–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Engelhorn, C. A., Engelhorn, A. L., Cassou, M. F., et al. (2006). Intima–media thickness in the origin of the right subclavian artery as an early marker of cardiovascular risk. Arquivos Brasileros de Cardiologia, 87(5), 609–14.Google Scholar
Eyler, W. R., Monsein, L. H., Beute, G. H., et al. (1996). Rib enlargement in patients with chronic pleural disease. American Journal of Roentgenology, 167, 921–6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fatmi, Z. and Coggon, D. (2016). Coronary heart disease and household air pollution from use of solid fuel: A systematic review. British Medical Bulletin, 118(1), 91–109.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Feigin, R. (2004). Textbook of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, 5th ed. Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders, p. 299.Google Scholar
Haynes, W. G. and Stanford, C. (2003). Periodontal disease and atherosclerosis: From dental to arterial plaque. Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology, 23, 1309–11.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kahraman, H., Ozaydin, M., Varol, E., et al. (2006). The diameters of the aorta and its major branches in patients with isolated coronary artery ectasia. Texas Heart Institute Journal, 33(4), 463–8.Google ScholarPubMed
Keller, A., Graefen, A., Ball, M., et al. (2012). New insights into the Tyrolean Iceman’s origin and phenotype as inferred by whole-genome sequencing. Nature Communications, 3, 698.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kelley, M. A. and Micozzi, M. (1984). Rib lesions in chronic pulmonary tuberculosis. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 65, 381–6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kovacic, S. and Bakran, M. (2012). Genetic susceptibility to atherosclerosis. Stroke Research and Treatment, 2012, 5.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lambert, P. M. (2002). Rib lesions in a prehistoric Puebloan sample from southwestern Colorado. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 117, 281–92.Google Scholar
Lehto, S., Niskanen, L., Suhonen, M., Rönnemaa, T. and Laakso, M. (1996). Medial artery calcification: A neglected harbinger of cardiovascular complications in non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology, 16(8), 978–83.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Loriaux, D. L. (2006). Diabetes and the Ebers Papyrus: 1552 B.C. The Endocrinologist, 16(2), 55–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lovejoy, C. O., Meindl, R. S., Pryzbeck, T. R. and Mensforth, R. P. (1985). Chronological metamorphosis of the auricular surface of the ilium: A new method for the determination of adult skeletal age at death. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 68, 15–28.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lusis, A. J. (2012). Genetics of atherosclerosis. Trends in Genetics, 28(6), 267–75.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lusis, A. J. (2000). Atherosclerosis. Nature, 407(6801), 233–41.Google Scholar
Malnar, D., Klasan, G. S., Miletic, D., et al. (2010). Properties of the celiac trunk: anatomical study. Collegium Antropologicum, 34(3), 917–21.Google ScholarPubMed
Marx, M. and D’Auria, S. H. (1986). CT examination of eleven Egyptian mummies. Radiographics, 6(2), 321–30.Google Scholar
Müller, R., Roberts, C. A. and Brown, T. A. (2014). Biomolecular identification of ancient Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex DNA in human remains from Britain and continental Europe. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 153(2), 178–89.Google Scholar
Nicklisch, N., Maixner, F., Ganslmeier, R., et al. (2012). Rib lesions in skeletons from early Neolithic sites in Central Germany: On the trail of tuberculosis at the onset of agriculture. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 149(3), 391–404.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nunn, J. F. (1996). Ancient Egyptian Medicine. London: British Museum Press.Google ScholarPubMed
Ortner, D. J. (2003). Identification of Pathological Conditions in Human Skeletal Remains. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Pandey, A. K., Blaha, M. J., Sharma, K., et al. (2013). Family history of coronary heart disease and the incidence and progression of coronary artery calcification: Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA). Atherosclerosis, 232(2), 369–76.Google Scholar
Richards, J. E. (2005). Society and Death in Ancient Egypt: Mortuary Landscapes of the Middle Kingdom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Roberts, C. A. (1999). Rib lesions and tuberculosis: the current stage of play. In Pálfi, G., Dutour, O., Deák, J., and Hutás, I., eds., Tuberculosis: Past and Present. Budapest/Szeged: Golder Book Publishers and Tuberculosis Foundation, pp. 311–16.Google Scholar
Roberts, C. A., Lucy, D. and Manchester, K. (1994). Inflammatory lesions of ribs: An analysis of the Terry Collection. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 95(2), 169–82.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rosenfeld, M. E. and Campbell, L. A. (2011). Pathogens and atherosclerosis: update on the potential contribution of multiple infectious organisms to the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. Thrombosis and Haemostasis, 106(5), 858–67.Google Scholar
Ryan, P., Cartwright, C. and Spencer, N. (2012). Archaeobotanical research in a pharaonic town in ancient Nubia. British Museum Technical Research Bulletin, 6, 97–107.Google Scholar
Sandgren, T, Sonesson, B., Ahlgren, A. and Länne, T. (1999). The diameter of the common femoral artery in healthy human: Influence of sex, age, and body size. Journal of Vascular Surgery, 29(3), 503–10.Google Scholar
Sandison, A. T. (1962). Degenerative vascular disease in the Egyptian mummy. Medical History, 6(1), 77–81.Google Scholar
Santos, A. L. and Roberts, C. A. (2006). Anatomy of a serial killer: Differential diagnosis of tuberculosis based on rib lesions of adult individuals from the Coimbra Identified Skeletal Collection, Portugal. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 130(1), 38–49.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sessa, R., Pietro, M. D., Filardo, S. and Turriziani, O. (2014). Infectious burden and atherosclerosis: A clinical issue. World Journal of Clinical Cases, 2(7), 240–9.Google Scholar
Shan, M., Yang, X., Ezzati, M., et al. (2014). A feasibility study of the association of exposure to biomass smoke with vascular function, inflammation, and cellular aging. Environmental Research, 135, 165–72.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sinha, S., Eddington, H. and Kalra, P. A. (2008). Vascular calcification: Mechanisms and management. British Journal of Cardiology, 15(6), 316–21.Google Scholar
Spencer, N. (2009). Cemeteries and a late Ramesside suburb at Amara West. Sudan and Nubia, 13, 47–61.Google Scholar
Spencer, N. (2014). Amara West: Considerations on urban life in occupied Kush. In Welsby, D. and Anderson, J. R., eds., The Fourth Cataract and Beyond: Proceedings of the 12th International Conference for Nubian Studies. Leuven: Peeters, pp. 457–85.Google Scholar
Spencer, N. (2017). Building on new ground: The foundation of a colonial town at Amara West. In Spencer, N., Stevens, A. and Binder, M., eds., Nubia in the New Kingdom: Lived Experience, Pharaonic Control and Indigenous Traditions. Proceedings of the Annual Egyptological Colloquium, British Museum 11–12 July 2013. Leuven: Peeters, pp. 323–97.Google Scholar
Spencer, N., Macklin, M. G. and Woodward, J. C. (2012). Reassessing the abandonment of Amara West: The impact of a changing Nile? Sudan and Nubia, 16, 37–43.Google Scholar
Thompson, R. C., Allam, A. H., Lombardi, G. P., et al. (2013). Atherosclerosis across 4000 years of human history: The Horus study of four ancient populations. Lancet, 381(9873), 1211–22.Google Scholar
Towler, D. A. (2008). Vascular calcification: A perspective on an imminent disease epidemic. IBMS BoneKEy, 5(2), 41–58.Google Scholar
Unosson, J., Blomberg, A., Sandström, T., et al. (2013). Exposure to wood smoke increases arterial stiffness and decreases heart rate variability in humans. Particle and Fibre Toxicology, 10, 20.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wapler, U., Crubézy, E. and Schultz, M. (2004). Is cribra orbitalia synonymous with anemia? Analysis and interpretation of cranial pathology in Sudan. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 123, 333–9.Google Scholar
Woodward, J., Macklin, M., Spencer, N., et al. (2017). Living with a changing river and desert landscape at Amara West. In Spencer, N., Stevens, A. and Binder, M., eds., Nubia in the New Kingdom: Lived Experience, Pharaonic Control and Indigenous Traditions. Proceedings of the Annual Egyptological Colloquium, British Museum 11–12 July 2013. Leuven: Peeters, pp. 225–52.Google Scholar
World Health Organization. (2018). Noncommunicable Diseases: Country Profiles 2018. Geneva: WHO. Available at https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/274512 (accessed 15 July 2019).Google Scholar
Zink, A. R., Gostner, P., Selim, A., Pusch, C. M. and Hawass, Z. (2011). Epidemiology and prevalence of atherosclerosis in royal Egyptian mummies. Paper presented at the 38th Annual Meeting of the Paleopathology Association, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 11–13 April 2011. Abstract available at https://paleopathology-association.wildapricot.org/resources/Documents/PPA%20Progs%20and%20Abstracts/38th%20Annual%20Meeting%202011%20Program%20_%20Abstracts.pdfGoogle Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×