Chagas disease is becoming a serious issue in the United States. Chagas is a parasitic disease caused by Trypanosoma cruzi and transmitted to humans through Triatomines, which are a subfamily of cone nosed insects.
Triatomine, (Bravo 2014)
These insects are also called assassin or kissing bugs and they live in cool dark places and are active at night. A Triatomine that carries T. cruzi will bite a humans, drink their blood, and then excrete feces which contain the parasite. The bitten person will then unknowingly rub the feces into the skin and T. cruzi will be introduced into the bloodstream (Rassi et al. 2012).
T. Cruzi among blood cells (photo credit CDC)
There are two phases of the disease. During the first, which can last up to twenty years, the parasite will lay dormant and the patient will show no symptoms. In the last few weeks of the first stage, some symptoms similar to that of the flu may develop. During the second phase, very serious complications will occur. According to Bravo’s article, “patients can develop cardiac complications, including an enlarged heart (cardiomyopathy), heart failure, altered heart rate or rhythm, and cardiac arrest (sudden death), as well as intestinal complications, such as an enlarged esophagus (megaesophagus) or colon (megacolon) and can lead to difficulties with eating or with passing stool” (2014).
This disease becomes serious extremely quickly, and while treatment is available, it is only effective if introduced before the second phase. Many people with Chagas either do not have access to proper medical facilities, or the symptoms are incorrectly diagnosed by doctors unfamiliar with the disease. Chagas can also be passed along during birth and through blood and organ transplants (Rassi et al. 2012).
Life Cycle of T. cruzi (photo credit CDC)
A recent study conducted by Reinhard and Araújo confirms that this disease is not by any means new to the United States. Chagas is obviously much more of an issue in Latin America, where around ten million people are infected (Hotez et al. 2012). However, an analysis of a mummified man found in the Lower Pecos Canyonlands in southern Texas shows that the disease has been in the United States much longer than originally thought (Reinhard & Araújo 2015).
Site Location point indicates Lower Pecos Canyonlands (Reinhard et al. 2003)
Chagas is a hard disease to study in an archaeological setting because a key organ used as identification of the disease is the heart, which is among the first of the organs to decompose. However, this mummified man presented clear signs of Chagas diseases in a different way. He had megacolon , which occurred because the parasitic disease caused partially digested food to spill into his colon which he was unable to excrete. The coprolite found weighed in at an astonishing 1,170 g, and healthy colons rarely can hold more than 30g of feces (Reinhard et. al 2003). Reinhard and Araújo wrote in their article that, “it is the oldest confirmed case of the megacolon suggesting Chagas disease outside South America” (2015).
Reconstruction of coprolite inside pelvic region (Reinhard et al. 2003)
Those residing in the Lower Pecos Canyonlands, which held large numbers of hunter-gatherer societies, had several behaviors that would have promoted Chagas disease, including cooking and preparing food on unclean surfaces, dwelling in caves (which contain many cracks and crevices that serve as homes to Triatomines), and having straw beds. Examination of the mummified remains shows that the wood rats were an extremely high percentage of the diet. A possible relationship between the insects and the wood rats in southern Texas exists, as the wood rats are though to be the main host for the parasite. T. cruzi are passed along from the wood rats to the Triatomines, who pass it along to humans (Reinhard et al. 2003).
These findings suggest that Chagas was not carried into north by immigrants as previously believed. It has actually been in the area for a considerable amount of time. Also, this account provides a connection to the idea of a good death compared to a bad death. The man with the megacolon surely died a slow and painful death, which is, in most societies, considered to be not an honorable or ideal way to die. This case study shows how parasites can play a role in societies’ views regarding types of deaths.
For more information on Chagas disease, visit the following resources:
The Chagas Disease Foundation
CDC Chagas Disease
Chagas: Time to Treat
References:
Bravo, T. (2014). Blood-sucking 'kissing bug' sees 300k Americans infected with deadly disease. Russian Times (RT).
Hotez, P. J., Dumonteil, E., Woc-Colburn, L., Serpa, J. A., Bezek, S., Edwards, M. S., ... & Bottazzi, M. E. (2012). Chagas disease:“the new HIV/AIDS of the Americas”. PLoS neglected tropical diseases, 6(5), e1498.
Rassi, A., & de Rezende, J. M. (2012). American trypanosomiasis (Chagas disease). Infectious disease clinics of North America, 26(2), 275-291.
Reinhard, K. J., & Araújo, A. (2015). Prehistoric earth oven facilities and the pathoecology of Chagas disease in the Lower Pecos Canyonlands. Journal of Archaeological Science, 53, 227-234.
Reinhard, Karl, Fink, T Michael, & Skiles, Jack. (2003). A case of megacolon in Rio Grande Valley as a possible case of Chagas disease. Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, 98(Suppl. 1), 165-172.
Ancient Mummy found in cardboard box by cleaners in Peru
Workers cleaning in Peru discovered a mysterious mummy inside a cardboard box outside an archaeological site.
The mummy was found Tuesday morning in a fetal position, tied with a rope, in a cardboard box near trash outside an archaeological site in the Pre-Incan city of Chan Chan.
“[The cleaners] thought it was rubbish and put it in the compactor but one cleaner opened it up and discovered it was a mummy,” said David Carrasco, municipal security at Huanchaco District, according to Reuters.
If it wasn’t for the one cleaner, it’s very possible the ancient discovery would have been thrown out for good. Read more.
It was not a funeral, the Dean of Leicester, David Monteith, reminded the congregation of his cathedral, which had been transformed into a grove of foliage and white roses – and the reminder about Richard III was very much needed.
Every pew was filled with guests in military uniforms, black...
One of the dominant theories of our evolution is that our genus, Homo, evolved from small-bodied early humans to become the taller, heavier and longer legged Homo erectus that was able to migrate beyond Africa and colonize Eurasia. While we know that small-bodied Homo erectus - averaging...
The Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis) inhabited Europe and parts of western Asia between 230,000 and 28,000 years ago. During the last few millennia they coincided with Homo sapiens sapiens, and became extinct for reasons that are still being challenged. The archaeological site at La...
When construction workers came across a large burial chamber in Mawahgdni, China, they had no idea that they had just uncovered the oldest and one of the most well-preserved mummies in the world. Known as the “Diva Mummy,” Xin Zhui, the Lady Dai, died around age fifty between 178 and 145 BC, and lived during a wealthy time in the Western Han Dynasty (Chunhong, 2004). The information about the Lady has been closely guarded, so there little was known about the specific findings outside academic circles until the release of the release of the documentary, The Diva Mummy, produced by Steven R. Talley in 2004.
(The Lady Dai at her final resting place in the Hunan Provincial Museum. Photo credit to Holloway, 2014)
The Lady Dai was in perfect condition (apart from being over two thousand years old) and Peng Longxiang, who performed her autopsy, was shocked to discover that she had the appearance of a recently deceased human (Talley, 2004). There was still red blood in her veins, her joints were flexible, and her skin was moist and still had its elasticity, which was simply unheard of prior to her discovery. In her stomach, Longxiang found a great number of melon seeds that were undigested, meaning the Lady had eaten the melon just before her death, as digestion takes an hour. They found a fused vertebrae, along with a number of tapeworms and whipworms, all of which would have had an effect on her quality of life, but the parasites were not the cause of death. A severely clogged artery and gallstones were also discovered, and therefore a heart attack is thought to be the downfall of Xin Zhui (Talley, 2004).
(Image of eggs from The Diva Mummy documentary)
These findings can give incredible insight to Xin Zhui’s lifestyle. Clogged arteries and gallstones both result from eating too much fat. Longxiang explains that the presence of the undigested melon seeds shows that she ate it quickly, as she did not take the time to spit out or remove the seeds. This suggests that she had luxurious and plentiful meals. She was overweight and her cause of death is intriguing because many researchers believed until her discovery that heart diseases of this manner did not exist in this time period (Holloway, 2014). Her carefully preserved body gives us clues to her lifestyle and a glimpse into a time period further back than any mummy has provided before.
(The second tomb. Photo credit to Hunan Provincial Museum)
Her body was carefully preserved, and the people who did so went to great lengths to keep her in pristine condition. The body was found in a deep burial chamber tightly wrapped in over twenty layers of silk cloth, and she was placed in a coffin that consisted of four separate coffins nesting tightly with one another, each sealed with lacquer. This coffin assemblage was placed in a burial chamber that measured 6x6x3 meters, which was surrounded by an astonishing five tons of charcoal (which would have absorbed moisture). This mass was encompassed with clay one meter thick, and dirt was tightly packed on top of the clay before being covered with a mound of dirt about fifty meters high (Talley, 2004).
(A rendering of the burial site and all layers except the last mound of dirt. Photo credit to https://classconnection.s3.amazonaws.com/338/flashcards)
Inside the chamber, researchers also found around 1400 grave goods, including over one hundred silk garments, 162 miniature wooden figures representing servants, tapestries, artwork, lacquered dishes and statues, and crates of food (Manning, 2009). These findings offer evidence of a belief in an afterlife, as Xin Zhui has been provided servants, clothing, and ample amounts of sustenance to accompany her in next life (Holloway, 2014). She was well-equipped to lead a luxurious afterlife similar to what she lead in life. She enjoyed a lavish lifestyle, and based on the amount of effort put forth by the living, it could be implied that the economy was fairing quite well, as members of the community were able to spare the resources and labor needed to create this burial chamber.
(A lacquered treasure. Photo credit to Hunan Provincial Museum)
The impeccable method of preservation used in this instance have allowed researchers to see back almost 2100 years and observe in great detail the life of a wealthy woman. Talley’s documentary can be found below for more information on the Lady of Dai, along with the actual footage from her autopsy.
(Warning: graphic images of autopsy in video)
References:
Chunhong, Y. (2004, August 25). Chinese Lady Dai leaves Egyptian mummies for dead. Retrieved March 6, 2015, from http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-08/25/content_368631.htm
Holloway, A. (2014, February 19). The enduring mystery of The Lady of Dai mummy. Retrieved March 6, 2015, from http://www.ancient-origins.net/ancient-places-asia/enduring-mystery-lady-dai-mummy-001357
Manning, S. (2009, November 17). Lady Dai Tomb Among Richest Finds In China History. Retrieved March 6, 2015, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/17/lady-dai-tomb-among-riche_n_290099.html
Talley, Steven R., The Diva Mummy [Motion picture]. (2004). Natural History New Zealand Ltd and View Point Communications for Natural Geographic.
Mummified Monk Found Inside Chinese Buddha Statue
Source: http://irisharchaeology.ie/2015/02/mummified-monk-found-inside-chinese-buddha-statue/
A remarkable study carried out recently in the Netherlands has revealed that a Chinese’s Buddha statue actually contains the remains of a mummified monk. The statue dates from c. 1050-1150 AD and is believed to hold the body of a Chinese Buddhist master, Liuquan. The study of the mummy was carried out under the supervision of Erik Bruijn, an expert in the field of Buddhist art and culture and guest curator at the World Museum in Rotterdam. He was aided by a team of medics including Reinoud Vermeijeden, a gastrointestinal……….Read More
Articulating burial process: Primary and secondary burials in the British and Middle Eastern Neolithic
Source: https://chronologyandidentity.wordpress.com/2015/03/01/articulating-burial-process-primary-and-secondary-burials-in-the-british-and-middle-eastern-neolithic/
Something which has often come up as a subject of discussion in prehistoric British archaeology is that of excarnation and secondary burial. What are these you ask? Technically the term excarnation can be used to define any burial process which removes flesh from the body. It is also used to refer to what I will call exposure burial; where a body is left exposed to the elements until it is reduced to bones. Secondary burial can be used to describe any burial which has multiple stages. For example, cremation is both a way of removing the flesh from the body (excarnation) and a form of secondary………. Read More at https://chronologyandidentity.wordpress.com/2015/03/01/articulating-burial-process-primary-and-secondary-burials-in-the-british-and-middle-eastern-neolithic/
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Thanks to a bit of genetic sleuthing, researchers now know the invasion history of the tropical fire ant (Solenopsis geminata), the first ant species known to travel the globe by...
An Italian cemetery may provide clues on cholera's evolution
A team of archaeologists and other researchers hope that an ancient graveyard in Italy can yield clues about the deadly bacterium that causes cholera.
The researchers are excavating the graveyard surrounding the abandoned Badia Pozzeveri church in the Tuscany region of Italy.
The site contains victims of the cholera epidemic that swept the world in the 1850s, said Clark Spencer Larsen, professor of anthropology at The Ohio State University and one of the leaders of the excavation team. Read more.
Richard III, born 1452, reigned as England’s monarch for two years until his death at the Battle of Bosworth Field on August 22, 1485, was the subject of a great deal of posthumous ill will. Much of this may be attributed to Shakespeare’s portrayal of him as a power-hungry villain in Richard III. Hoping that the discovery of his remains might lead to a revision of this portrayal, members of the Richard III Society and researchers at the University of Leicester worked together in a search for these remains.
In 2012, Richard III’s remains were discovered under what is now a parking lot, and the find was corroborated in part by comparing the mitochondrial DNA of the remains to a living descendants of Richard III’s sister, Anne of York. Inheritance of mitochondrial DNA is matrilineal, and the sheer amount of it relative to nuclear DNA makes it useful in identifying remains.
(Richard III's skeleton on location in Leicester)
What interests us is that soil samples taken from the pelvic region contain eggs of Ascaris lumbricoides, a species of roundworm.
(A. lumbricoides egg)
With as many as 1.2 billion people worldwide infected with A. lumbricoides, it is the most common intestinal nematode infection in the world. Reaching up to 35 cm in length, A. lumbricoides is most common in warm, moist regions where proper sanitation and hygiene are lacking. This is due to the parasite’s method of transmission; the eggs are passed along in human feces and become a problem when people defecate outdoors or when feces is used as fertilizer. Given the period of time in which Richard III lived, infection with A. lumbricoides was probably common. Cases of infection are often asymptomatic, but Richard III might have experienced intestinal discomfort, intestinal blockage, or even coughing if A. lumbricoides larvae migrated up the respiratory tract. If he was ever infected as a child as well, he may have suffered from impaired growth due to malnutrition.
Since there are no other reasons why the eggs would have been present in the pelvic region, and given the fact that that the soil near the head, and the soil taken from a few feet away from the remains produced no eggs, it can be assumed that the infamous king would have had the infection prior to death.The presence of these eggs simply shows that Richard III came into contact with infected fecal matter, which would have been fairly easy to do. More interesting, however, is that many of the common parasites from the 15th century are not present, such as Trichuris trichiura, Taenia saginata/solium, Diphyllobothrium latum, and Fasciola hepatica, many of which are passed through improperly handled or cooked meats. This implies that royalty ate high quality of food prepared correctly, unlike many of the commoners.
This assumption is further supported by a multi-isotope analysis of Richard III’s femur and ribs, where researchers found evidence of a diet rich in luxury foods such as egrets, swans, and peacocks, along with a large quantity of fish within the last two years of his life. The finding of a well-known individual is a rare thing in the anthropological world, and it is interesting to see how finding the A. lumbricoides eggs can give insight to previously unknown medical conditions, and the sanitation level in the monarch's kitchen.
(Richard III's skull)
References:
Ascariasis. (2013, January 10). Retrieved February 13, 2015, from http://www.cdc.gov/parasites/ascariasis/index.html
(2013). The King's Bones: Richard III Revealed [Documentary]. In Smithsonian Channel.
Kemper, C. A. (2013). Fit for a king, but not a parasite. Infectious Disease Alert, 33(1), 9-10
Kennedy, M. (2013, February 4). Richard III: DNA confirms twisted bones belong to king. The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/feb/04/richard-iii-dna-bones-king.
Angela L. Lamb, Jane E. Evans, Richard Buckley, Jo Appleby, Multi-isotope analysis demonstrates significant lifestyle changes in King Richard III, Journal of Archaeological Science, Volume 50, October 2014, Pages 559-565, ISSN 0305-4403, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2014.06.021.
Mitchell, P. D., Hui-Yuan, Y., Appleby, J., & Buckley, R. (2013). The intestinal parasites of King Richard III. Lancet, 382(9895), 888. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(13)61757-2
Piers D Mitchell, Hui-Yuan Yeh, Jo Appleby, Richard Buckley, The intestinal parasites of King Richard III, The Lancet, Volume 382, Issue 9895, 7–13 September 2013, Page 888, ISSN 0140-6736, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(13)61757-2.
(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140673613617572)
Archaeologists say they’ve made a grim discovery in Siberia: the grave of a young mother and her twins, who all died during a difficult childbirth about 7,700 years ago.
The finding may be the oldest confirmed evidence of twins in history and one of the earliest examples of death during…
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