(Press-News.org) The ancient Egyptians did not live in such good conditions and were not surrounded by such opulence as was thought up to now, but, rather, suffered from hunger and malnutrition, a whole range of infectious diseases and an extremely high infant mortality rate. Furthermore, the governors of Aswan, on the border with Sudan, as well as their families, interbred with the black peoples of the neighbouring country.
These are some of the conclusions drawn from the Qubbet el-Hawa research project, carried out by the University of Jaen, in which anthropologists from the University of Granada have participated, as well as the Supreme Council of Antiquities of the Arab Republic of Egypt.
It involves excavating tomb no. 33 of the Qubbet el-Hawa necropolis, right opposite the modern-day city of Aswan, about 1000 km. south of Cairo. The tomb was constructed during the 12th Dynasty (1939-1760 BC), to house the corpse of one of the region of Aswan's leading dignitaries, whose identity is still unknown.
The site was later re-used at least three times (18th, 22nd and 27th Dynasties), is one of the largest in the necropolis and has a huge archaeological potential, since it houses at least one chamber that remains intact, containing three decorated wooden sarcophagi.
Over 200 mummies
Scientists from the UGR's Laboratory of Physical Anthropology, the director of which is Prof. Miguel Botella Lopez, have just returned from Egypt. They have been taking part in the field work to carry out the anthropological analysis of the bones of the mummies unearthed in the excavation, as well as calculating the number of individuals belonging to the more recent occupations of the tomb (New Kingdom, 3rd Intermediate Period and Late Dynastic Period). The researchers have found over 200 skeletons and mummies in tomb no. 33.
The initial results of their work have led to some very interesting conclusions and have revealed new data not only about the ancient Egyptians physical characteristics, but also about the living conditions at that time. As Prof. Botella explains, "although the cultural level of the age was extraordinary, the anthropological analysis of the human remains reveals the population in general and the governors – the highest social class – lived in conditions in which their health was very precarious, on the edge of survival".
According to the UGR anthropologists, life expectancy barely reached 30, "since they suffered from many problems of malnutrition and severe gastrointestinal disorders, due to drinking the polluted waters of the Nile". This is revealed by the fact that the bones of the children had no marks on them, "which demonstrates that they died from some serious infectious disease". Furthermore, the researchers have unearthed in the tomb a large number of mummies belonging to young adults of between 17 and 25 years old.
First mention of the pygmies
Miguel Botella points out that the tombs of the Qubbet el-Hawa necropolis contain inscriptions that are "of great historical importance, not only for Egypt, but for the whole of Humanity". Thus, in the tomb of Governor Herjuf (2200 BC), the inscriptions describe the three journeys he made to central Africa, during one of which he brought back a pygmy; this is supposedly the oldest mention made of this ethnic group.
Other inscriptions tell of Egypt's relations with the neighbouring region of Nubia (present-day Sudan) over a period of almost 1000 years. For this reason, Qubbet el-Hawa is one of the most important archaeological sites in Egypt, not only due to the discoveries already made, but also for the amount of information it contains about health and illness, and intercultural relations in ancient times.
INFORMATION:
For more information on the Qubbet el-Hawa project, go to: http://www.ujaen.es/investiga/qubbetelhawa/index.php
Governors of Ancient Egypt suffered from malnutrition dying before they were 30 years old
2013-03-07
[Attachments] See images for this press release:
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Killing cancer cells with acid reflux
2013-03-07
A University of Central Florida chemist has come up with a unique way to kill certain cancer cells – give them acid reflux.
Chemistry professor Kevin Belfield used a special salt to make cancer cells more acidic – similar to the way greasy foods cause acid reflux in some people. He used a light-activated, acid-generating molecule to make the cells more acidic when exposed to specific wavelengths of light, which in turn kills the bad cells. The surrounding healthy cells stay intact.
The technique is a simple way around a problem that has frustrated researchers for years. ...
Pancakes with a side of math
2013-03-07
Philadelphia, PA—For many of us, maple syrup is an essential part of breakfast—a staple accompaniment to pancakes and waffles—but rarely do we think about the complicated and little-understood physiological aspects of syrup production. Each spring, maple growers in temperate regions around the world collect sap from sugar maple trees, which is one of the first steps in producing this delicious condiment.
However, the mechanisms behind sap exudation—processes that trigger pressure differences causing sap to flow— in maple trees are a topic of much debate. In a paper ...
HIV therapy just got easier: Fewer drugs may be needed for treatment-experienced patients
2013-03-07
VIDEO:
Karen Tashima, MD, director of the HIV Clinical Trials Program at The Miriam Hospital, led a study to look at new treatment regimens for patients with drug-resistant HIV.
...
Click here for more information.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. – A new multi-site study reveals patients with drug-resistant HIV can safely achieve viral suppression – the primary goal of HIV therapy – without incorporating the traditional class of HIV medications into their treatment regimen. Karen Tashima, M.D., ...
Majority of Albertans support assisted suicide: UAlberta study
2013-03-07
(Edmonton) An overwhelming majority of Albertans believe dying adults should have the right to request to end their life, according to new research from the University of Alberta.
U of A researcher Donna Wilson led the team that studied the views of 1,203 Albertans on assisted suicide, currently illegal in Canada. A majority—77.4 per cent—felt dying adults should have the right to end their life early.
"Increasingly, there are countries or states where they are allowing assisted suicide or euthanasia. Like many of those countries, Canada will have to grapple with this ...
UTHealth researchers find industrial chemicals in food samples
2013-03-07
HOUSTON – (March 6, 2013) – Researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) have discovered phthalates, industrial chemicals, in common foods purchased in the United States. Phthalates can be found in a variety of products and food packaging material, child-care articles and medical devices.
"Although it's not completely understood how phthalates get into our food, packaging may be a contributor to the levels of the toxin in food," said lead investigator Arnold Schecter, M.D., M.P.H., professor of environmental health at The University ...
A new cryptic spider species from Africa
2013-03-07
The species from the genus Copa are very common spiders found in the leaf litter of various habitats. Being predominantly ground-living, they occur widely in savanna woodlands but also occasionally in forests, where they are well camouflaged. They usually share the litter microhabitats with several other species of the family Corinnidae. The spiders from this cryptic, ground-dwelling genus in the continental Afrotropical Region are revised in a study published in the open access journal Zookeys.
The number of continental species in the Afrotropical Region has been reduced ...
How to predict the progress of technology
2013-03-07
CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Researchers at MIT and the Santa Fe Institute have found that some widely used formulas for predicting how rapidly technology will advance — notably, Moore's Law and Wright's Law — offer superior approximations of the pace of technological progress. The new research is the first to directly compare the different approaches in a quantitative way, using an extensive database of past performance from many different industries.
Some of the results were surprising, says Jessika Trancik, an assistant professor of engineering systems at MIT. The findings could ...
Iowa State engineers developing ideas, technologies to save the Earth from asteroids
2013-03-07
AMES, Iowa – Bong Wie has heard the snickers.
You want to protect the Earth from asteroids? Where were you when the dinosaurs needed you? You want to be like Bruce Willis in that asteroid movie?
Wie has a serious reply: After five years of science and engineering work, Wie and his small team have a publication list of 40-plus technical papers, $600,000 of NASA research support and a proposal for a $500 million test launch of an asteroid intercept system. Plus, Wie has just been invited to show off his research as part of NASA's Technology Day on the Hill in Washington, ...
INRS overcomes a hurdle in the development of terahertz lasers
2013-03-07
This press release is available in French.
Dr. Roberto Morandotti and his team at the INRS Énergie Matériaux Télécommunications Research Centre have developed a device that is critical to the use of terahertz (THz) sources for a variety of applications. Their electromagnetic non-reciprocal isolator is the subject of a recent article in Nature Communications, showing just how important this new development is. Until now, no isolator existed that was effective in the THz region of the spectrum, a situation that held back the development of certain technologies. The new ...
Star-shaped glial cells act as the brain's 'motherboard'
2013-03-07
The transistors and wires that power our electronic devices need to be mounted on a base material known as a "motherboard." Our human brain is not so different — neurons, the cells that transmit electrical and chemical signals, are connected to one another through synapses, similar to transistors and wires, and they need a base material too.
But the cells serving that function in the brain may have other functions as well. PhD student Maurizio De Pittà of Tel Aviv University's Schools of Physics and Astronomy and Electrical Engineering says that astrocytes, the star-shaped ...