Skeleton Shatters Long-Held Theory

Reuters ^

[thesharkboy]

LONDON (Reuters) - British scientists have found the remains of a man who died of tuberculosis more than 2,200 years ago, shattering theories the deadly disease was brought to England by the conquering armies of ancient Rome.

The Iron Age skeleton was found in a pit in the tiny village of Tarrant Hinton in southwest England.

His damaged spine led scientists to suspect he was a tuberculosis victim and DNA tests confirmed it.

Carbon dating shows he lived between 400 and 230 BC, long before Julius Caesar launched Rome's first tentative invasion of Britain in 55 BC.

"It's tremendously important," said Simon Mays, a human skeletal biologist working for English Heritage.

"It tells us that TB wasn't brought here by the Romans," he told Reuters. "Presumably it was imported via trading contacts with the continent during the prehistoric period."

'TB man' was found during an excavation more than 20 years ago and has lived quietly in a museum in the sleepy village of Wimborne, near his burial site, ever since.

[Red Badger]

But you can’t tell a skeleton’s sex........

[rdl6989]

That wasn’t the best choice of words, was it?

[SunkenCiv]

He was identified by his dental records.

But...

If they didn’t know who he was...

...how the —— did they know who his dentist is?

[Red Badger]

Ancient British had dentists?............

[rdl6989]

It sounds painful to me.

[Red Badger]

Anesthesia was a rock..........

[SunkenCiv]

https://search.brave.com/search?q=identifying+gender+of+a+skeleton

[tet68]

how would you like to be known throughout history as “TB Man”?

I suppose that’s better than “VD Man”.

[Red Badger]

I was making references to the story last month of the university professor who said you can’t........... 🤔

[SunkenCiv]

:^) He should become an ex-professor.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Not good ones.

The ones in Rome were far superior.

IIRC the ones in Egypt were the best.

[Red Badger]

Imports are always better than domestic.....................

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Lindsey Davis has some words about British dentistry in "A Body in the Bath House". They are not exactly complementary.

Of course the protagonist's view point of every place aside from Rome (city of) is not exactly complementary.

[SunkenCiv]

Yup, hence they made a lot of incisive comments.

[Grimmy]

I could be wrong but somewhere along the line, I came to the idea that TB was closely associated with drinking unpasteurized cows’ milk.

[Gritty]

Wow. Talk about "living quietly".

That's where this thread has been for over 20 years!

[gnarledmaw]

The more I read the more Im convinced that archaeologists are really just a type of affirmative action placement for all of scientific endeavor. Whenever a university is found to not have enough people with disabilities on staff they hire the low functioning offspring of some donor and give them a degree in archaeology. If they make up ridiculous fantasies and write papers in crayon thats OK, everyone they are studying is dead so no harm done. Besides, eventually a real scientist from another discipline will come along and correct the record.

[SunkenCiv]

Unpasteurized milk at least used to be commonplace in Romania. In my childhood I drank it once in a while. It's, uh, just better. :^) TB just ruins ****. :^o

[pax_et_bonum]

”TB or not TB, that is the question."

🤣🤣🤣

[ApplegateRanch]

Jules was a Johnny-come-lately to Britain, so of course his incursions would have had little to do with introducing TB from Club Med into Fair Albion.

(From Ye Dreaded Source):
"The oldest production of tin-bronze is in Turkey about 3500 BC, but exploitation of the tin resources in Britain is believed to have started before 2000 BC,[10] with a thriving tin trade developing with the civilisations of the Mediterranean. The strategic importance of tin in forging bronze weapons brought the south west of Britain into the Mediterranean economy at an early date.

Soldiers aren't the exclusive carriers of TB; merchants & their ships' crews can also be carriers.

Wikipedia: Mining in Cornwall and Devon