People with dwarfism and cleft palate may have been revered in ancient times
BERLIN—Researchers have been finding them for decades: bones that are too heavy or too light; too long or too short; twisted, perforated, or studded with protruding growth. They’re a sign that someone in the past suffered from a rare disease, often defined today as affecting fewer than one in 2000 people, such as dwarfism or osteopetrosis, a disorder that causes dense, brittle bones.
But few scientists have studied these cases or what they reveal about ancient societies. An unusual workshop here this month, which drew more than 130 paleopathologists, bioarchaeologists, geneticists, and rare disease experts, could change that. “This is really the first time people have been confronted with this subject,” says Michael Schultz, a paleopathologist at Georg August University of Göttingen in Germany.
Case after case challenged the common notion that life in the past was nasty, brutish, and short. In a line of research called the bioarchaeology of care, scientists are finding that people with rare diseases often enjoyed the support of their societies, survived well into adulthood, and were buried with their communities, not as marginalized outsiders. Read more.
