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Anaemia (thalassaemia) in the Middle Euphrates Valley of Syria in the second–fourth centuries AD?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2016

Jacek Tomczyk ,
Piotr Palczewski ,
Hanna Mańkowska-Pliszka ,
Tomasz Płoszaj ,
Krystyna Jędrychowska-Dańska  and
Henryk W. Witas
Jacek Tomczyk*
Affiliation:
Department of Biological Anthropology, Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University, 01–938 Warsaw, Wóycickiego 1/3, Poland
Piotr Palczewski
Affiliation:
1st Department of Clinical Radiology, Warsaw Medical University, 02–004 Warsaw, Chałubińskiego 5, Poland
Hanna Mańkowska-Pliszka
Affiliation:
Department of Descriptive and Clinical Anatomy, Medical University of Warsaw, 02–004 Warsaw, Chałubińskiego 5, Poland
Tomasz Płoszaj
Affiliation:
Department of Molecular Biology, Medical University of Lodz, 90–136 Lodz, Narutowicza 60, Poland
Krystyna Jędrychowska-Dańska
Affiliation:
Department of Molecular Biology, Medical University of Lodz, 90–136 Lodz, Narutowicza 60, Poland
Henryk W. Witas
Affiliation:
Department of Molecular Biology, Medical University of Lodz, 90–136 Lodz, Narutowicza 60, Poland
*
Email: jaktom@post.pl
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Abstract

The migration of individuals and populations was a powerful factor in the spread of diseases among early human societies. Analysis of human remains from Tell Masaikh in the Middle Euphrates Valley provides a striking example in what is probably the earliest case of hereditary anaemia. Skeletal changes were consistent with thalassaemia, an uncommon disease in the steppe areas of Syria. Genetic analyses of the remains confirmed the pathological assessment and also suggested that the individual was of Asian descent, from the Indian Peninsula. Such an ancestry could then explain this unusual occurrence of thalassaemia.

Keywords

Syrialate Roman periodpalaeopathologythalassaemiamigration
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 90 , Issue 349 , February 2016 , pp. 157 - 171
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2016 

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