History's Medical Mysteries

"Grotesque" Imagery of Amarna Art Religion Not Reality

2010-10-07T11:31:00.000-07:00

Image of small statue of Akhenaten via WikipediaI was researching Egypt's 18th dynasty in the course of writing a book review and came across the official journal article detailing the results of a medical analysis recently done on mummies either identified or tentatively identified as members of the 18th dynasty. The report is fascinating, although laymen may need to keep dictionary.com handy as it is written for the medical professional members of the American Medical Association. I had heard that the studies had definitely concluded that Pharaoh Tutankhamun was not murdered but probably died as the result of a severe infestation of malaria. But this report goes much further and discounts most pathological speculations about his father, the "heretic" pharaoh, Akhenaten, as well.

Image of the famous bust of Nefertiti by mharrsch via FlickrMacroscopic and radiological inspection of the mummies did not show specific signs of gynecomastia, craniosynostoses, Antley-Bixler syndrome or deficiency in cytochrome P450 oxidoreductase, Marfan syndrome, or related disorders (eAppendix, Table 2). Therefore, the particular artistic presentation of persons in the Amarna period is confirmed as a royally decreed style most probably related to the religious reforms of Akhenaten. It is unlikely that either Tutankhamun or Akhenaten actually displayed a significantly bizarre or feminine physique.

It is important to note that ancient Egyptian kings typically had themselves and their families represented in an idealized fashion. A recent radiographic examination of the Nefertiti bust in the Berlin Museum illustrates this clearly by showing that the original face of Nefertiti, present as a thin layer beneath the outer surface, is less beautiful than that represented by the artifact.33 Differences include the angles of the eyelids, creases around the corners of the mouth on the limestone surface, and a slight bump on the ridge of the nose.34 Thus, especially in the absence of morphological justification, Akhenaten’s choice of a “grotesque” style becomes even more significant. - Ancestry and Pathology in King Tutankhamun's Family, Journal of the American Medical Association

I see the researchers also did exhaustive skull studies and apparently the elongated skulls of Akhenaten and Nefertiti's daughters portrayed in Amarna art were also exaggerated. Unlike the Mayans, the Egyptians may have admired an unusually shaped head but they did not attempt skull binding to create it.

Alexander the Great's Mysterious Death: Overdose or Intestinal Bug?

2009-02-03T15:28:00.000-08:00

I noticed that a new program entitled "Alexander the Great's Mysterious Death" on the Discovery Channel has put forward the hypothesis that Alexander died from an accidental overdose of hellebore, a poisonous plant used to induced vomiting in ancientimes.

[Image - Alexander the Great, Capitoline Museum, Rome, Italy]

Back in 1998, however, a group of doctors gathered for a clinical pathology conference at the University of Maryland Medical Center expressed their belief that Alexander was killed by an intestinal bug:

Alexander the Great, who ruled much of the ancient world until his death in 323 B.C., was conquered at age 32 not by an enemy, but possibly by a tiny intestinal bug. In an analysis based on available historical records, physicians at the University of Maryland Medical Center believe that Alexander was the victim of typhoid fever.

Their analysis, titled, "A Mysterious Death," is published in the June 11 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. The most popular theories among historians previously have been that Alexander was poisoned or had died of malaria.

In the week before he died, historical accounts say Alexander the Great had chills, sweats, exhaustion and high fever, all of which are typical symptoms of certain infectious diseases, including typhoid fever.

"He was also described as having severe abdominal pain, causing him to cry out in agony," says David W. Oldach, an infectious disease expert at the University of Maryland Medical Center and lead author of the article.

"That was an important clue, because untreated typhoid fever can lead to perforation of the bowel and may have been the reason for his abdominal pain," according to Dr. Oldach, who is also an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

"My discussions with Dr. Oldach and his colleagues caused me to change my mind about what caused the death of Alexander the Great," says Eugene N. Borza. Ph.D., professor emeritus of ancient history who taught for 31 years at Penn State University. Dr. Borza, who is also an author of the New England Journal article, previously thought that malaria caused Alexander's demise.

A curious symptom described in ancient accounts is that Alexander's body did not begin to decay for at least several days after his death. Dr. Oldach says while that defies reason, those around him may have gotten that impression because of another complication of typhoid fever, called ascending paralysis. It is a neurological problem that starts with the feet and moves up the body, paralyzing muscles and slowing down breathing. It can make a person look dead, even if he is not. Alexander may have been in that state for a few days before he died.

Accounts of the death were not consistent with poisoning, although Dr. Borza says that has been a popular belief. "It was an ancient conspiracy theory. People have often suspected a conspiracy when a famous young person dies unexpectedly." Dr. Borza says ancient Greeks who didn't succumb to disease as a child or a battlefield wound often lived into their 70's, because of a healthy diet and constant physical activity.

The New England Journal of Medicine article is believed to be the first collaboration between medical scientists and an historian to answer an ancient question about what caused a famous historical figure to die. Dr. Borza says the earliest surviving accounts about Alexander's death available today were written three centuries after he died, so there was not a lot of information to go on.

"Even so, we found out that much of the scant information we do have is credible, because it makes sense to the medical community. It is important for us to be able to validate the evidence and set the record straight. As historians, that's what we try to do," says Dr. Borza.

For his analysis, Dr. Oldach also had to rely on historical medical accounts of what happens when typhoid fever goes untreated with antibiotics, which did not become available until the 1950's. U.S. physicians today rarely witness untreated patients in the late stages of typhoid fever.

Typhoid fever comes from salmonella typhi, an organism that lives only in humans and can be spread by contaminated water or because of poor hygiene.

Egyptian doctor thinks Akhenaten Suffered From hyper-pituitarism rather than Marfan's Syndrome

2008-12-07T07:47:00.001-08:00

[Akhenaten's] odd features
could not be simply attributed to his foreign descent (Asian blood) from
his maternal side. His undue tall stature and feminine-like appearance has
raised suspicion that he was suffering from a certain medical syndrome.

Mariette,
the famous French Egyptologist argued that Akhen-Aton was castrated, but
such claim was rejected. He was known to have 6 daughters (and possibly at
least one son, his successor, Smenkh-Ka-Ra, from a secondary wife Kiya).

The striking
features found from the study of his statues, pictures as well as his
mummy (if it were truly his) were those of tall stature, unduly long
limbs, elongated skull, long slender neck and long face with a huge
mandible (lower jaw).

In addition,
his feminine features included gynaecomastia (female-like breasts) and a
wide pelvis with fat hips (the breadth of the pelvis exceeds that of the
shoulders – a characteristic feature of females). A nude statue during
his early reign showed him without genitalia at all.

Moreover, he
showed a redundant belly in all his pictures.

Studies of
the assumed mummy and specifically the ossification of bony epiphyses
(union between the bone shaft and its both ends) have concluded a “bony
age” of 26 years (according to Prof. Eliot Smith) or 23 years (Prof.
Derry). This age does not match his chronological age as estimated by
Egyptologists and historians, which was 37 – 40 years at his death or
disappearance.

Such
discrepancy obviously is caused by delayed bony ossification, a condition
known in medicine to be due to retarded sexual gland activity. However, no
one can tell for sure that the mummy under such study was truly his.

In 1907,
Prof. Eliot Smith has added to these findings a slight hydrocephalus
(fluid accumulating inside the brain cavity) and epilepsy. Careful study
of the skull has negated the presence of any hydrocephaly. In addition,
epilepsy is known to leave no pathological marks on the skull. It is
diagnosed in the living by measuring the electrical impulses from the
brain. Such claims would certainly be untrue.

Review of
his pictures throughout different stages of his life is also very helpful.
His early reliefs do not show any deformity, while the later ones do. This
denotes a disease presenting later in life, at least not during childhood
or adolescence.

Several
diagnoses were suggested. The earliest was Florisch's syndrome.
Other suggestions included Marfan's and Kleinfilter's syndromes as well as
pituitary gland dysfunction.

It is
obvious that Frolisch's syndrome or a liver disease could be easily ruled
out.

Klienfilter's
syndrome could be ruled out as well. Despite of the skeletal abnormal
features of the disease that resemble Akhen-Aton's condition, as well as
gynaecomastia and small testes, two characteristic features of the disease
are inconsistent. Akhen-Aton was neither obese nor infertile.
Egyptologists give hard evidence that he had had children.

Marfan's
syndrome could not be ruled out. Though the skeletal anomalies are
suggestive, there are no evidence of any cardiovascular or eye
manifestations to support this likelihood, even if the mummy found was
his. It was a tradition to remove the eye during the process of
embalmment. Moreover, the feminine-like manifestation would still remain
unexplained.

The most
likely diagnosis of Akhen-Aton's disease is hyper-pituitarism. All
bony abnormalities seem to favor such diagnosis, together with the sexual
ones. A late onset of acromegaly or delayed hypo-gonadism sound to be most
descriptive for his illness.

Further
studies of the mummies and pictures of Akhen-Aton's family might be an
additive. The mummy of his grandfather Yoya (maternal side) shows a
tall man with thick lips and large nose.

The mummies
of his two successors Smenkh-Ka-Ra and Tut-Ankh-Aton (Tut-Ankh-Amon) also
show large skulls. Both are thought by some Egyptologists to be his sons
from a secondary wife, Kiya.

The early
death of a younger brother at young age should also be kept in
consideration.

All reliefs
of Akhen-Aton's family show that this large elongated skull was a common
feature among his daughters, and his wife Nefertiti as well. This has led
some scholars to believe that this skull feature has become a model of
Egyptian art during this time. Nefertiti, the six princesses and all the
court as well were so depicted as a compliment to Akhen-Aton.

If this
suggestion is untrue, then the possibility of a hereditary disease -
rather than an acquired one - is very likely. - More, Sameh
M. Arab. MD.

Fluorosis a problem for ancient Palmyrans

2008-04-28T10:59:00.000-07:00

a new study suggests Palmyra's waters may have been ruinous in the end for the city's inhabitants. Palmyra today is a World Heritage Site, a designation bestowed by the United Nation Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in 1998. About 140 miles southeast of Damascus, the trading town known as Tadmor to the ancients, later Palmyra, had been a center of trading since around 2000 B.C. But the town really bustled during the Roman Empire, and was filled with magnificent buildings throughout the 1st and 2nd century, starting during the reign of Roman emperor Hadrian in 129 A.D.

He renamed the oasis town "Palmyra Hadriana." Modest guys, those Roman emperors. The city's wealth faded with the decline of Roman influence in ancient Syria.
Starting in 1990, Japanese archaeologists have been excavating the Southeast Necropolis of Palmyra and examining remains from the Roman era. Despite Palmyra's prosperity, "skeletal remains uncovered from the underground tombs of Palmyra have been found to retain an arthropathy of the joints, especially in the knee joint, bone fracture, marked bone lipping, spur formation, and eburnation (smoothed bone cavities)," reports the team led by Kiyohide Saito of the Archaeological Institute of Kashihara in the current Journal of Archaeological Science.
Fluoride in small concentrations is thought to deter microbes that cause tooth decay, the reason why about 66% of public water supplies in the United States are now fluoridated, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But the Palmyrans' symptoms, along with discolored teeth, point to "fluorosis," a skeletal and enamel-damaging syndrome caused by ingesting too much fluoride over a long time, the researchers note. Looking at two large tombs for example, 25 of 33 individuals (76%) had discolored teeth in one, and 45 out of 65 (69%) had discolored teeth in the other.

Palmyrans drank, and still drink, water from wells tapped from ground water by long tunnels called "qanats" (an excellent Scrabble word). The area's geology and water table has been stable for about 7000 years, meaning water conditions now aren't greatly different from those during Roman times. In a bid to estimate the fluoride burden suffered by the town's ancient inhabitants, the researchers analyzed the water from these wells. Fluoride levels were as high as three parts per million in the water, a level that a National Academy of Sciences report in March warned could lead to fluorosis.

To further check, the archaeologists also ground up seven discolored teeth from tomb inhabitants, and compared them to seven others without discoloration, to reveal their fluoride concentration. In a chemical reaction, fluoride tends to replace some calcium in tooth enamel, making overexposure to fluoride particularly worrisome for children with growing teeth and bones. The ground-up teeth revealed that in the most discolored ones, about 22% of the calcium had been replaced by fluoride. "Thus, it was possible to directly verify that the ancient inhabitants of Palmyra did suffer from fluorosis," they conclude.

Mary Queen of Scots Miscarriage Points to Collusion in Death of Lord Darnley

2008-04-13T17:12:00.000-07:00

Interesting article in the Times Online about new research by modern gynecologists:

"Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, was an “adulteress and liar” who plotted to kill her husband in order to marry her lover, a study by modern gynecologists has suggested.

An intriguing new medical analysis claims that Mary, the cousin of Elizabeth I, concocted a story of kidnap and alleged rape to justify her marriage to her third husband – potentially shedding light on a 400-year-old royal murder mystery.

Far from being the saintly and wronged Roman Catholic monarch portrayed in portraits and films, Mary was actually a “moral loose cannon”, whose striking beauty and sex appeal gave Elizabeth other reasons to imprison and execute her, the researchers suggest.

The study revolves around the report by Claude Nau, Mary’s adviser and secretary, that on July 24, 1567, at Loch Levan Castle, Kinross, Mary miscarried twins. Information about the miscarriage is scant, but in May 1567, just 12 weeks after the murder of Mary’s second husband, Lord Darnley, the Scottish Queen married James Hepburn, fourth Earl of Bothwell, who had abducted and “ravished” her at Dunbar Castle, in April, some sources say.

Mary later claimed that her pregnancy began after her marriage but experts now say this is impossible.

In a study published today in the Journal of Family Planning and Reproductive Healthcare, Lesley Smith, a medical historian, claims that it would have required modern microscopes and knowledge about foetal development to identify that the miscarriage was of twins after the seven weeks of pregnancy that Mary claimed.

It would also have been an “astonishing coincidence” if conception occurred at the time of the “rape”, and even then the twins would have been just 12 weeks old and hard to identify upon miscarriage.

Instead, it is more likely that “the widowed Mary had an affair with Bothwell, became pregnant and had used the abduction story as a cover for her condition and justification for marriage,” Ms Smith says.

Along with other historians, she believes both Mary and Bothwell to have been implicated in the death of Darnley, a drunken and controversial figure who was found strangled at Kirk O’Fields, Edinburgh, after being married to Mary for just 19 months.

Bothwell was a prime suspect but was acquitted at what is now regarded as a sham trial.

“Mary had an undoubted passion for Bothwell, her supposed kidnapper and did not try and escape from him despite ample opportunity. By contrast, she hated Darnley and was publicly separated from him by the time of his murder. The suspicion of an affair is not a new idea,” Ms Smith says, “but the medical evidence brings us very much closer to the likely truth.”

Tony Roberts, a consultant obstetrician at Queen’s Hospital, Burton on Trent, says that it would have required “a sensible and weathered eye” to identify a twin miscarriage at 12 weeks.

“If you want to prove pregnancy, a midwife in those days should have been able to do this, but standards were low, even for a queen,” he adds.

As such, Claude Nau’s report of the miscarriage implies that Mary became pregant by Bothwell well before the abduction. The unlikely possibility that Darnley was the father would have left the Queen at least five months pregnant with the twins, a condition which would have been “hardly unnoticeable”, Ms Smith says.

The researcher, who is the curator of Tutbury Castle in Staffordshire, where Mary was held prisoner, says her theory further explains the animosity between Mary and Elizabeth I.

“Mary Stuart was a remarkable specimen of humanity,” she writes. “She was 5ft 11in when the average woman was around 4ft 11in, so she was the equivalent of 6ft5in by modern standards. [She] was also beautiful and very sexually attractive. “All in all, Mary Queen of Scots was a very dangerous creature to the unmarried Protestant Elizabeth, and her physical presence made her positively intoxicating to anyone who met her.”

She said: “All the available evidence creates a damning impression. Elizabeth probably considered Mary to be a moral loose cannon and fool for men. It is also interesting that, while Mary was prisoner in England there was no Catholic nation that made a serious attempt to release her: was there a more widely held view that she was better out of the way?”

Queen of plots

December 1542 Mary, above born to James V of Scotland. Her father dies when she is six days old and Mary becomes Queen of Scotland

1548 Henry VIII begins his “rough wooing” — a military campaign designed to impose marriage to his son on Mary. Instead she promises to marry the French Dauphin and flees to France

1559 Marries François II

1561 She returns to Scotland following François’s death

1565 Marries Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, her first cousin, below. Their son, James I of England, is born the following year

February 1567 Darnley found dead. James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, bottom, is prime suspect

April 24 1567 Mary visits her son for the last time at Stirling but is abducted by Bothwell and taken to Dunbar Castle, where she is allegedly raped

May 15 1567 She marries Bothwell, a Protestant, to preserve her honour, but is condemned by the Scottish nobility

July 24 1567 Imprisoned at Loch Levan Castle by her own people, she miscarries twins and is forced to abdicate the Scottish throne

May 1568 Mary escapes but is defeated at Battle of Langside and flees to England, where she is captured and spends the next 19 years as a prisoner

1578 Bothwell dies, insane and imprisoned in Denmark

1587 Mary is found guilty of treason and executed

Shakespeare's Portraits Point to Mikulicz Syndrome and Systemic Sarcoidosis

2008-02-08T08:53:00.000-08:00

Two years ago I posted an abstract from an article about the controversy surrounding a death mask identified as William Shakespeare. I recently received an email from University of Mainz academic Hildegard Hammerschmidt-Hummel, who is a champion of the mask, pointing out that she has written a book about the mask entitled "The True Face of William Shakespeare. The Poet's Death Mask and Likenesses from Three Periods of His Life". In it, she explains the scientific methods she used to analyze the mask and compare it to four Shakespearean portraits.

She also includes information about how the portraits and mask point to the cause of Shakespeare's early death at 52 years old.

"By combining exhaustive academic research with the latest technology and collaborating over
many years with specialists from the most varied disciplines - including forensic experts from the German Federal Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BKA=CID), Professors of Medicine, 3D imaging engineers, archivists and an expert on old masters - Hildegard Hammerschmidt-Hummel has proved the authenticity of the Chandos portrait, the Darmstadt
death mask and the Flower portrait (recently incorrectly dismissed as a ‘fake’ by the National
Portrait Gallery, as shown by the author's latest evidence). Her revolutionary research has also
authenticated another true face of Shakespeare - the Davenant bust. This haunting sculpture has resided in the Garrick Club since 1855 and was thought to be the work of an eighteenth century sculptor. According to the author’s new documentary sources, it derives from the collection of Sir William Davenant (1606-1668), Shakespeare’s godson, who also owned the Chandos portrait.

By tracing the development of certain signs of illness in each of the images, first noticed by
Hildegard Hammerschmidt-Hummel, the author’s medical experts have identified and verified the most probable cause of Shakespeare’s death. The conspicuous growth on the upper left eyelid, they interpreted as Mikulicz Syndrome (a probably cancerous abnormality of the tear glands), the swelling in the nasal corner of the left eye as a fine caruncular tumour, and the considerable swelling on the forehead (in conjunction with the other pathological symptoms) as systemic sarcoidosis, an inner disease that affects the organs and takes a very protracted course, but proves to be fatal."

Beethoven: A Symphony of Illness

2007-05-27T12:27:00.000-07:00

A 56-year-old Beethoven sought medical care after suffering chills, fever, respiratory distress, and spitting up blood. He complained of chest pain on the right side. He said he had been in good health until two weeks before when he noted a loss of appetite, diarrhea, weight loss, increased thirst, and a swelling of his feet and abdomen. He admits he had been working in the cold at his brother's country home dressed in only flimsy clothing and returned in an open-air cart.

In addition to suffering from progressive deafness that began in his early twenties, the patient suffered recurrent bouts of depression, social isolation and personal neglect. He also began suffering from abdominal pain that he relieved with alcohol. The patient had survived smallpox as a child as well as typhus or typhoid fever. He subsequently claimed to have intermittent winter attacks of "asthma" since the age of 17. In his late forties he noted the onset of chronic headaches and recurrent joint pains which were thought to be rheumatism or gout. At age 51 he suffered an episode of jaundice that lasted six weeks. He also developed a painful eye affliction that was resolved after nine months of patching and noted that he experienced increasing swelling of the lower extremities accompanied by intermitten bouts of nosebleeds, vomiting blood, and coughing or spitting of blood.

Physical examination revealed a stocky, powerfully built but somewhat emaciated man of swarthy complexion. His face was flushed and prominently pockmarked. His lips were thin and parched, his tongue dry and coated. The skin was hot, flushed , and dry and showed evidence of hair loss.

What was the instrument of the famous composer's death?

Did the Roman Emperor Claudius die of poison mushrooms or marital treachery?

2007-05-27T11:41:00.000-07:00

Tiberius Claudius Drusus Nero Germanicus was 64 years old when, following a banquet where he consumed a large quantity of food and wine, he lost consciousness. On regaining consciousness, he complained of severe abdominal pain. However, he vomited and said he then felt somewhat better.

He ate and drank in excess regularly, rarely leaving his dining room until he was "stuffed and soaked". This caused him to gain considerable weight in later years and produced heartburn so severe that it is reported that he contemplated suicide as his only means of relief. Born prematurely after only 7 months of gestation, he suffered from a succession of disorders including milk allergy, malaria, measles, deafness, and colitis. He suffered from weakness in both legs to the extent that he noticeably limped and could not walk more than a short distance without assistance. He had longstanding tics and jerks of his head and hands, as well as a stammer and drooling, which were most pronounced when he was excited. He was also prone to fits of inappropriate laughter.

A physical examination revealed that his temperature was normal butt his abdomen was mildly tender throughout.

An attending physician induced additional vomiting by placing a feather in the back of the patient's throat. Shortly thereafter, the emperor became confused and exhibited signs of unremitting abdominal pain and fecal incontinence. He died 12 hours later.

Was it a case of the "cure" being worse than the disease?

Pericles: What plague killed the father of the Parthenon?

2007-05-27T11:15:00.000-07:00

The main medical symptoms described by the Greek historian Thucydides included "heat in the head", redness, and burning in the eyes with fetid breath, sneezing, hoarseness and then coughing. The patients' skins were at first flushed and livid then later exhibited pustules and ulcers.

Thucydides reported that desperate patients racked with thirst and fever plunged into cisterns and wells seeking relief. Of the few survivors, some lost fingers and toes from peripheral gangrene, others suffered blindness, and there were also reports of survivors experiencing a complete loss of memory.

Research indicates the disease originated in Africa then spread to the Persian Empire and ultimately to a beseiged Athens via the port of Piraeus where it attacked a population of almost 400,000 condensed into 4 square miles.

What do the experts say?

Welcome to History's Medical Mysteries

2007-05-27T10:18:00.000-07:00

With all the new web design capabilities of blogger, I have decided to move my website about history's medical mysteries to Blogspot. Hopefully, this move will make it easier to share articles I have found about medical investigations into the lives of the past - both the rich and famous as well as the average resident of historical locations around the world.