Paleopathologists examine the bodies and organs of ancient human remains to discover the causes of death. In many cases, the causes of illness and death thousands of years ago are also the causes of death today. In recent years, researchers have found evidence ancient humans suffered from a host of parasitic infections, tuberculosis, arthritis, and cancer, just as people do today.

"Our work is a study of man and his environment and the social strata in which he lived," said Marvin Allison, PhD, professor emeritus at the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond. Dr. Allison has spent 30 years studying South American mummies to find out how they died. "In about 95 percent of the cases, we can tell what they died from. That’s about the modern rate."

The Cause of Death
Using current autopsy techniques, Dr. Allison and other paleopathologists who study ancient peoples, perform tests to determine the cause of death of mummies, some 8,000 years old. "One of the basic problems can be the survival of antigenic material. It survives as long as 8,000 years, so we’ve done many autopsies on these. We use the same techniques as any modern hospital."

Many of the mummies Dr. Allison has studied come from Chile’s Atacama Desert, where the dry air preserves specimens well. Recently, he reported on research of stool samples from mummies 1,700-1,800 years old and infected with Helicobacter pylori (H pylori). This bacterium can cause ulcers and stomach cancer and is still a health hazard today in much of the world.

Thirty mummies were examined as part of Dr. Allison’s study and H pylori was found in six. Testing stool samples is a relatively new way to detect H pylori. The researchers used the Premier Platinum HpSA test, recently approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for marketing to physicians. The test is about 96 percent accurate for the disease, according to its manufacturer Meridian Diagnostics Inc.

During his years of research, Dr. Allison has been involved with about 3,000 autopsies, and he estimated he has found about 30 cases of neoplasia, or tumor growths, in different areas of the bodies.

Dr. Allison and his paleopathology team will next work on identifying giardia and cryptosporidium infections in Chilean mummies. Not surprisingly, both of these intestinal parasites are still a health problem today in the developing world.

Across the Planet
While the mummies found in the Atacama desert valley of Chile are about 8,000 years old and preserved by the arid heat of the region, paleopathological studies have also been conducted on Egyptian mummies about 3,000 years old and preserved through more sophisticated techniques.

According to A. R. David, PhD, of the Manchester University Museum in Manchester, England, Egyptian mummies have been found to be infected with schistosoma eggs in the liver, kidney, bladder or rectum. Strains of the disease schistosomiasis affect 200 to 300 million people worldwide, including about 20 percent of the modern Egyptian population. Bladder infection by this parasite causes chronic irritation that markedly increases a person’s risk of developing bladder cancer, one of the most common cancers in certain regions of Egypt.

The researchers also found evidence of arthritis and tuberculosis, both of which leave clues about their development on mummies’ skeletal remains.

As for cancer, the earliest known mention of the disease among the Egyptians appears in a series of papyri discovered in the 19th century. The documents describe surgery and various treatments for the disease. However, since many ancient people tended to die at younger ages than people do today, something else usually killed them before cancer – a disease more prevalent in older people - ever had a chance to develop.