Tracking of Infectious Diseases in Shahr-i Sokhta (Burnt City) during the Bronze Age (ca. 3200-2200 BCE) through Anemic Signs Observed in Excavated Human Skeletons
-
Negar Bizhani
,
Giorgia Vincenti
,
Seyyed Mansur Seyyed Sajjadi
,
Jean Dupouy-Camet
,
Rouhollah Shirazi
,
Mehdi Nateghpour
,
Faranak Kargar
,
Vahid Shariati
,
Pier Francesco Fabbri
,
Gholamreza Mowlavi
Abstract
Background: The intriguing area of paleopathology merges the disciplines of archeology and biological studies. Using this line of research, it is possible to identify diseases that have left skeletal traces in the past. In addition, diseases such as various anemia that occur in childhood, when bone tissue is soft and retains evidence, can be identified in ancient bones. Cribra orbitalia (Co), cribra cranii (Cc), and porotic hyperostosis (Ph) were ancient skeletal remains' most common degenerative anomalies.
Methods: Shahr-i Sokhta dated back to 3200-1800 BCE, is the subject of our research; it is located in Sistan and Baluchistan province (Iran). The research was done on the archaeological data collected during the MAIPS expeditions at Shahr-i Sokhta (2017–2021) kept at the storage of the excavated materials on the site. The skeletal remains were examined for bone abnormalities such as Co, Cc, and Ph. These symptoms were analyzed to obtain traces of anemia-related diseases at this site. Data has been utilized following the Data Collection Codebook
Results: Ninety-six adults were studied while the anemic signs of CC and Co are respectively seen in 27/72 (37.5 %) and 10/57 (17; 5 %), and these samples have been kept for future analysis.
Conclusion: Bones may narrate a person's life, their gender and how old they were when they died besides the diseases they had. Some of the skeletons show signs of anemia, Classical paleopathology lets us to reconfirm studying diseases by further targeted sampling using molecular methods.
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17. Mohr JC (2004). Plague and Fire: Battling Black Death and the 1900 Burning of Honolulu's Chinatown. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
18. Leasor J (2001). The plague and the fire. House of Stratus, Cornwall.
19. Glatter KA, Finkelman P (2021). History of the Plague: An Ancient Pandemic for the Age of COVID-19. Am J Med, 134 (2):176-181.
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21. Adam I (2016). Anemia, iron supplementation and susceptibility to Plasmodium falciparum malaria. EBioMedicine, 14:13-14.
22. Spottiswoode N, Duffy PE, Drakesmith H (2014). Iron, anemia and hepcidin in malaria. Front Pharmacol, 5:125.
23. Oxenham MF, Cavill I (2010). Porotic hyperostosis and cribra orbitalia: the erythropoietic response to iron-deficiency anaemia. Anthropol Sci, 118 (3):199-200.
24. Edrisian GH (2006). Malaria in Iran: Past and present situation. Iran J Parasitol, 1:1-14.
25. Sargolzaie N, Salehi M, Kiani M, et al (2014). Malaria Epidemiology in Sistan and Balouchestan Province during. Zahedan Journal of Research in Medical Sciences, 16 (4):41-43.
26. Mohammadkhani M, Khanjani N, Bakhtiari B, et al (2019). The relation between climatic factors and malaria incidence in Sistan and Baluchestan, Iran. Sage Open, 9 (3):2158244019864205.
27. Smith NE (2015). The paleoepidemiology of malaria in the Ancient Near East. University of Arkansas.
28. Biscione R, Salvatori S, Tosi M (1977). Shahr-i Sokhta: l’abitato protostorico e la sequenza cronologica. In In G. Tucci, La Città Bruciata nel Deserto Salato. Ed Tucci, Erizzo, pp77-112.
29. Sajjadi S, Foruzanfar F, Shirazi R, et al (2003). Excavations at Shahr-i Sokhta first preliminary report on the excavations of the graveyard, 1997–2000. Iran, 41 (1):21-97.
30. Ascalone E, Fabbri P.F (2022). Demographic Considerations Regarding the Settlement and Necropolis of Shahr-i Sokhta. In: Excavations and Researches at Shahr-i Sokhta 2.. Eds, Ascalone and Sajjadì, Pishin Pajouh, Teheran, pp 523-554.
31. Ascalone E (2022). Preliminary Report on the 2018-2019 Excavations in Area 33 at Shahr-i Sokhta. In: Excavations and Researches at Shahr-i Sokhta 3. Eds, Ascalone and Sajjadì, Pishin Pajouh, Teheran, pp.143-232.
32. Fabbri PF, Vincenti G (2021). Adult sex ratio in the necropolis of Shahr-i Sokhta and in Bronze Age Bactria Margiana, and Indus Valley sites. Journal of Sistan and Baluchistan Studies, 1 (1):11-19.
33. Jörg F, Samida S (2016). Why archaeologists, historians and geneticists should work together–and how. Medieval Worlds, 4:5-21.
34. Grauer AL (2018). Paleopathology: from bones to social behavior. Biological anthropology of the human skeleton:447-465.
35. Kontopoulos I, Penkman K, Mullin VE, et al (2020). Screening archaeological bone for palaeogenetic and palaeoproteomic studies. PLoS One, 15 (6):e0235146.
36. Schultz M (2001). Paleohistopathology of bone: a new approach to the study of ancient diseases. Am Phys Anthropol, Suppl 33:106-47.
37. Rothschild BM, Zdilla MJ, Jellema LM, et al (2021). Cribra orbitalia is a vascular phenomenon unrelated to marrow hyperplasia or anemia: Paradigm shift for cribra orbitalia. Anat Rec (Hoboken), 304 (8):1709-1716.
38. Chaichun A, Yurasakpong L, Suwannakhan A, et al (2021). Gross and radiographic appearance of porotic hyperostosis and cribra orbitalia in thalassemia affected skulls. Anat Cell Biol, 54 (2):280-284.
39. Smith-Guzman NE (2015). Cribra orbitalia in the ancient Nile Valley and its connection to malaria. Int J Paleopathol, 10:1-12.
40. O'Donnell L, Hill EC, Anderson ASA, et al (2020). Cribra orbitalia and porotic hyperostosis are associated with respiratory infections in a contemporary mortality sample from New Mexico. Am J Phys Anthropol, 173 (4):721-733.
41. Godde K, Hens SM (2021). An epidemiological approach to the analysis of cribra orbitalia as an indicator of health status and mortality in medieval and post‐medieval London under a model of parasitic infection. Am J Phys Anthropol, 174 (4):631-645.
42. Heinsohn G (2011). Thrice Burned: Shahr-i Sokhte in the Sistanbasin.
43. Mortazavi M (2007). Mind the Gap: Continuity and Change in Iranian Sistan Archaeology. Near Eastern Archaeology, 70 (2):109-110.
44. Sajjadi SMS, Moradi H (2014). Excavation at Buildings Nos. 1 and 20 at Shahr-i-Sokhta. International Journal of the Society of Iranian Archaeologists, 1 (1):77-90.
45. Tosi M (1983). Excavations at Shahr-i Sokhta 1969-70. Prehistoric Sistan, 1:73-125.
46. Nicklisch N, Maixner F, Ganslmeier R, et al (2012). Rib lesions in skeletons from early neolithic sites in Central Germany: on the trail of tuberculosis at the onset of agriculture. Am J Phys Anthropol, 149 (3):391-404.
47. Brzezinski ET, Agnew AM (2022). Entheseal Changes and Joint Degeneration of Upper Limb Bones in Males and Females in Medieval Giecz, Poland. Am J Biol Anthropol, 111: 24-24.
48. Grauer AL (2007). Macroscopic analysis and data collection in palaeopathology. In: Advances in human palaeopathology: 57-76.
49. Macak KM (2013). Anemia, stress, and mortality in an historic Portuguese skeletal sample. California State University, Sacramento.
50. Makki M, Dupouy-Camet J, Sajjadi SMS, et al (2017). Human spiruridiasis due to Physaloptera spp.(Nematoda: Physalopteridae) in a grave of the Shahr-e Sukhteh archeological site of the Bronze Age (2800–2500 BC) in Iran. Parasite, 24:18.
2. Brickley MB (2018). Cribra orbitalia and porotic hyperostosis: A biological approach to diagnosis. Am J Phys Anthropol, 167 (4):896-902.
3. Scaffidi BK (2020). Spatial paleopathology: A geographic approach to the etiology of cribrotic lesions in the prehistoric Andes. Int J Paleopathol, 29:102-116.
4. Buikstra JE (1994). Standards for data collection from human skeletal remains. Arkansas archaeological survey research series, 44.
5. Angel JL (1966). Porotic hyperostosis, anemias, malarias, and marshes in the prehistoric eastern Mediterranean. Science, 153 (3737):760-763.
6. Brauner CJ, Wang T (1997). The optimal oxygen equilibrium curve: a comparison between environmental hypoxia and anemia. Am Zool, 37 (1):101-108.
7. Jelkmann W (1992). Erythropoietin: structure, control of production, and function. Physiol Rev, 72 (2):449-489.
8. Bhoopalan SV, Huang LJ-s, Weiss MJ (2020). Erythropoietin regulation of red blood cell production: From bench to bedside and back. F1000Rese, 9:F1000 Faculty Rev-1153.
9. Rivera F, Mirazón Lahr M (2017). New evidence suggesting a dissociated etiology for cribra orbitalia and porotic hyperostosis. Am J Phys Anthropol, 164 (1):76-96.
10. Mays S (2018). How should we diagnose disease in palaeopathology? Some epistemological considerations. Int J Paleopathol, 20:12-19.
11. Steckel RH, Larsen CS, Sciulli PW, et al (2006). Data collection codebook. The global history of health project, 1-41.
12. Walker PL, Bathurst RR, Richman R, et al (2009). The causes of porotic hyperostosis and cribra orbitalia: A reappraisal of the iron‐deficiency‐anemia hypothesis. Am J Phys Anthropol, 139 (2):109-125.
13. Hoffbrand AV, Moss P (2018). Fundamentos em hematologia de Hoffbrand. 7th ed. Artmed Editora, Spagna.
14. Kujovich JL (2016). Evaluation of anemia. Obstet Gynecol Clin North Am, 43 (2):247-264.
15. Carlson DS, Armelagos GJ, Van Gerven DP (1974). Factors influencing the etiology of cribra orbitalia in prehistoric Nubia. J Hum Evol, 3 (5):405-410.
16. Fabbri PF. Vincenti G (2022). Excavations and Researches at Shahr-i Sokhta 3.Traumatology in a Human Sample from the Necropolis of Shahr-i Sokhta. In: Excavations and Researches at Shahr-i Sokhta 2.. Eds, Ascalone and Sajjadì, Pishin Pajouh, Teheran, pp. 623-644.
17. Mohr JC (2004). Plague and Fire: Battling Black Death and the 1900 Burning of Honolulu's Chinatown. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
18. Leasor J (2001). The plague and the fire. House of Stratus, Cornwall.
19. Glatter KA, Finkelman P (2021). History of the Plague: An Ancient Pandemic for the Age of COVID-19. Am J Med, 134 (2):176-181.
20. Ferrando-Bernal M (2023). Ancient DNA confirms anaemia as the cause for Porotic Hyperostosis in ancient Neolithics together with a genetic architecture for low bone mineral density. medRxiv: 23284324.
21. Adam I (2016). Anemia, iron supplementation and susceptibility to Plasmodium falciparum malaria. EBioMedicine, 14:13-14.
22. Spottiswoode N, Duffy PE, Drakesmith H (2014). Iron, anemia and hepcidin in malaria. Front Pharmacol, 5:125.
23. Oxenham MF, Cavill I (2010). Porotic hyperostosis and cribra orbitalia: the erythropoietic response to iron-deficiency anaemia. Anthropol Sci, 118 (3):199-200.
24. Edrisian GH (2006). Malaria in Iran: Past and present situation. Iran J Parasitol, 1:1-14.
25. Sargolzaie N, Salehi M, Kiani M, et al (2014). Malaria Epidemiology in Sistan and Balouchestan Province during. Zahedan Journal of Research in Medical Sciences, 16 (4):41-43.
26. Mohammadkhani M, Khanjani N, Bakhtiari B, et al (2019). The relation between climatic factors and malaria incidence in Sistan and Baluchestan, Iran. Sage Open, 9 (3):2158244019864205.
27. Smith NE (2015). The paleoepidemiology of malaria in the Ancient Near East. University of Arkansas.
28. Biscione R, Salvatori S, Tosi M (1977). Shahr-i Sokhta: l’abitato protostorico e la sequenza cronologica. In In G. Tucci, La Città Bruciata nel Deserto Salato. Ed Tucci, Erizzo, pp77-112.
29. Sajjadi S, Foruzanfar F, Shirazi R, et al (2003). Excavations at Shahr-i Sokhta first preliminary report on the excavations of the graveyard, 1997–2000. Iran, 41 (1):21-97.
30. Ascalone E, Fabbri P.F (2022). Demographic Considerations Regarding the Settlement and Necropolis of Shahr-i Sokhta. In: Excavations and Researches at Shahr-i Sokhta 2.. Eds, Ascalone and Sajjadì, Pishin Pajouh, Teheran, pp 523-554.
31. Ascalone E (2022). Preliminary Report on the 2018-2019 Excavations in Area 33 at Shahr-i Sokhta. In: Excavations and Researches at Shahr-i Sokhta 3. Eds, Ascalone and Sajjadì, Pishin Pajouh, Teheran, pp.143-232.
32. Fabbri PF, Vincenti G (2021). Adult sex ratio in the necropolis of Shahr-i Sokhta and in Bronze Age Bactria Margiana, and Indus Valley sites. Journal of Sistan and Baluchistan Studies, 1 (1):11-19.
33. Jörg F, Samida S (2016). Why archaeologists, historians and geneticists should work together–and how. Medieval Worlds, 4:5-21.
34. Grauer AL (2018). Paleopathology: from bones to social behavior. Biological anthropology of the human skeleton:447-465.
35. Kontopoulos I, Penkman K, Mullin VE, et al (2020). Screening archaeological bone for palaeogenetic and palaeoproteomic studies. PLoS One, 15 (6):e0235146.
36. Schultz M (2001). Paleohistopathology of bone: a new approach to the study of ancient diseases. Am Phys Anthropol, Suppl 33:106-47.
37. Rothschild BM, Zdilla MJ, Jellema LM, et al (2021). Cribra orbitalia is a vascular phenomenon unrelated to marrow hyperplasia or anemia: Paradigm shift for cribra orbitalia. Anat Rec (Hoboken), 304 (8):1709-1716.
38. Chaichun A, Yurasakpong L, Suwannakhan A, et al (2021). Gross and radiographic appearance of porotic hyperostosis and cribra orbitalia in thalassemia affected skulls. Anat Cell Biol, 54 (2):280-284.
39. Smith-Guzman NE (2015). Cribra orbitalia in the ancient Nile Valley and its connection to malaria. Int J Paleopathol, 10:1-12.
40. O'Donnell L, Hill EC, Anderson ASA, et al (2020). Cribra orbitalia and porotic hyperostosis are associated with respiratory infections in a contemporary mortality sample from New Mexico. Am J Phys Anthropol, 173 (4):721-733.
41. Godde K, Hens SM (2021). An epidemiological approach to the analysis of cribra orbitalia as an indicator of health status and mortality in medieval and post‐medieval London under a model of parasitic infection. Am J Phys Anthropol, 174 (4):631-645.
42. Heinsohn G (2011). Thrice Burned: Shahr-i Sokhte in the Sistanbasin.
43. Mortazavi M (2007). Mind the Gap: Continuity and Change in Iranian Sistan Archaeology. Near Eastern Archaeology, 70 (2):109-110.
44. Sajjadi SMS, Moradi H (2014). Excavation at Buildings Nos. 1 and 20 at Shahr-i-Sokhta. International Journal of the Society of Iranian Archaeologists, 1 (1):77-90.
45. Tosi M (1983). Excavations at Shahr-i Sokhta 1969-70. Prehistoric Sistan, 1:73-125.
46. Nicklisch N, Maixner F, Ganslmeier R, et al (2012). Rib lesions in skeletons from early neolithic sites in Central Germany: on the trail of tuberculosis at the onset of agriculture. Am J Phys Anthropol, 149 (3):391-404.
47. Brzezinski ET, Agnew AM (2022). Entheseal Changes and Joint Degeneration of Upper Limb Bones in Males and Females in Medieval Giecz, Poland. Am J Biol Anthropol, 111: 24-24.
48. Grauer AL (2007). Macroscopic analysis and data collection in palaeopathology. In: Advances in human palaeopathology: 57-76.
49. Macak KM (2013). Anemia, stress, and mortality in an historic Portuguese skeletal sample. California State University, Sacramento.
50. Makki M, Dupouy-Camet J, Sajjadi SMS, et al (2017). Human spiruridiasis due to Physaloptera spp.(Nematoda: Physalopteridae) in a grave of the Shahr-e Sukhteh archeological site of the Bronze Age (2800–2500 BC) in Iran. Parasite, 24:18.
| Files | ||
| Issue | Vol 53 No 6 (2024) | |
| Section | Original Article(s) | |
| Keywords | ||
| Paleopathology Human remains Ancient skeletons Infectious diseases Iran | ||
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How to Cite
1.
Bizhani N, Vincenti G, Seyyed Sajjadi SM, Dupouy-Camet J, Shirazi R, Nateghpour M, Kargar F, Shariati V, Fabbri PF, Mowlavi G. Tracking of Infectious Diseases in Shahr-i Sokhta (Burnt City) during the Bronze Age (ca. 3200-2200 BCE) through Anemic Signs Observed in Excavated Human Skeletons. Iran J Public Health. 2024;53(6):1416-1426.
