The Silk Road has often been blamed for the spread of infectious diseases in the past between East Asia, the Middle East and Europe. While such a hypothesis seems plausible, there is actually very little concrete evidence to prove that diseases were transmitted by early travellers moving along its various branches. The aim of this study is to look for ancient parasite eggs on personal hygiene sticks in a latrine at a large relay station on the Silk Road at Xuanquanzhi (111 BC-AD 109), at the eastern margin of the Taklamakan Desert in north-western China. We isolated eggs of four species of parasitic intestinal worms: Chinese liver fluke (Clonorchis sinensis), Taenia sp. tapeworm (likely Taenia asiatica, T. solium or T. saginata), roundworm (Ascaris lumbricoides) and whipworm (Trichuris trichiura). The Chinese liver fluke requires wet marshy areas to sustain its life cycle and could not have been endemic to this arid region. The presence of this species suggests that people from well-watered areas of eastern or southern China travelled with their parasites to this relay station along the Silk Road, either for trade or on government business. This appears to be the earliest archaeological evidence for travel with infectious diseases along the Silk Road.
Bioarchaeological research provides unique insights on human adaptation, diet, lifestyle and epidemiology. The Mogou Bioarchaeology Project explores how health was affected by the Bronze Age transition in north-west China. Preliminary results reveal that the inhabitants experienced substantial physiological stress, infectious disease and lethal trauma.
Paleopathological evidence of cancer from past populations is rare, especially outside of Europe and North Africa. To begin to fill the gaps in the geographical distribution of neoplastic disease, this study presents a probable case of multiple myeloma in an adult male from the Qijia culture horizon (1750-1400 BCE) of the Bronze Age cemetery of Mogou ( 磨 磨 ), located in Gansu Province, Northwest China. Multiple ovoid-shaped osteolytic lesions with sharply demarcated margins were assessed macroscopically and radiographically. The axial skeletal had the greatest involvement, specifically the vertebrae, ribs, and sternum. Radiographic imaging revealed more extensive destruction of hematogenous than cortical bone, indicating that the marrow was the focal point of the disease. Based on the nature, distribution, and radiographic appearance of the lesions, the most likely diagnosis is multiple myeloma. This is one of the only cases of cancer identified in archaeological human skeletal remains in East Asia. By placing case studies such as this into a temporal and spatial framework, it is possible for future research to begin to interrogate possible underlying causes of cancer in ancient populations within the context of changing environmental conditions and subsistence strategies.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.