Ancient Egypt is synonymous with splendor, power, magnificence. Its pyramids continue to arouse admiration thousands of years after they were built. Its advanced culture continues to captivate locals and strangers. But all that glitters is not gold. The great civilization that emerged around the Nile also has its chiaroscuro.
Anemia, for example, was a common disease in Egyptian children, the researchers explain in an article published in the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology. Experts have analyzed up to 21 mummies spread across different European museums.
Using a non-invasive technique, they were able to see through the bandages and discover that a third of the total had signs of anemia (lack of red blood cells) and also found evidence of thalassemia (an inherited blood disorder) in one of the cases. studied.
Among the 21 mummies were twelve male and seven female children. In two cases, moreover, the sex could not be determined. The estimated age at death ranged from approximately 1 year to 14 years. 33% of the mummies had "an enlargement of the frontal cranial vault which represents a typical finding of chronic hemolytic anemia and iron deficiency anemia."
Paleopathologist Stephanie Panzer, lead author of the study, believes that this disease was probably common in ancient Egypt and would have been caused by factors such as malnutrition, parasitic infections and genetic disorders, which still cause this health problem today.
Some specialists have even argued in the past, without being able to prove it, that Tutankhamen died of sickle cell anemia. However, as the scientists in this study acknowledge, "direct evidence of anemia in human remains from ancient Egypt is rare."
Anemia is a condition in which the body lacks enough healthy red blood cells to carry oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body's tissues. Red blood cells contain hemoglobin, which is an iron-rich protein that helps in this transmission.
Although the CT scans could not determine whether anemia played a role in the children's deaths, the research team believes it likely did. They also looked for signs of diseases that might have caused the anemia.
When ancient humans were mummified, their bodies were preserved in ways that held more information than those buried. Although researchers cannot remove the bandages used in the embalming process, they often use scans to 'peer' through the wrappers to see what is inside.
Chronic hemolytic anemia and iron deficiency anemia are often accompanied by an enlargement of the cranial vault (the area that houses the brain). The experts expected to find indicators of this type along with others that appear in bone such as porosity, thinning and changes in shape.
Seven of the infant mummies stored in German, Italian and Swiss museums had clear signs of the disease, specifically an enlarged frontal cranial vault. In addition, one boy showed changes to his face and other bones from thalassemia, a condition that prevents the body from making enough hemoglobin.
"The chronologically oldest mummy dates back to the time span between the Old Kingdom (2686-2160 BCE) and the First Intermediate Period (2160-2055 BCE). Most of the mummies date to the Ptolemaic periods (332-30 BCE) and Roman (30 BC–AD 395),” concludes Stephanie Panzer.
