Bone tuberculosis in Roman Period Pannonia (western Hungary)

Abstract

Paleopathology is an important branch of physical anthropology, it involves the study of injuries and disease processes in ancient human populations. Infectious diseases are the most significant selective factors affecting human populations and they cause the most important pathological processes resulting in changes in bones. Specific bacterial causes of disease are associated with characteristic bone lesions that do not occur with infection caused by other bacterias. Examples of such infections include tuberculosis (TB), treponematosis and leprosy (Manchester 1983).Estimating the exact prevalence of skeletal TB in ancient populations is very difficult. Approximately 5% of chronic TB cases show typical lesions in the skeleton (Donoghue et al. 2004). Moreover, the results of the examination of a skeleton can be influenced by post-mortem damage to the skeletal remains resulting from burial. This paper presents the investigation of a skeleton that displayed changes suggestive of tuberculous spondylitis.In 2009, three skeletons from the Roman Period (second half of the III-IV centuries) were excavated in Győr, in western Hungary (Győr-Frigyes Laktanya site). These skeletons were found at a smaller settlement located near Arrabona, along the trade route between Arrabona and Savaria, another Roman settlement. Arrabona was built on the site of a modern-day town and an earlier Celtic settlement and it was one of the most important auxiliary Roman forts of the Danube Limes (Gabler 1967, Visy 2003a. The skeletal materials were kept in the Xántus János Museum in Győr. Morphological sex was determined and the age at death was estimated by the recommendations of Rösing et al. (2007). The paleopathological analysis was conducted by gross observation (Ortner 2003).Of the three specimens, one (KE69, male, 35-50 years old) showed no pathological changes in the skull or postcranial bones. Another (KE90, female, 25-35 years old) had no pathological lesions in the skull, but had nonspecific changes in the bones of the lower limbs. This skeleton showed slight periostitis on the medial surface of the left tibia and osteomyelitis in the right tibia, at the nutrient foramen.The third specimen (KE91), a complete skeleton of a 25-30-year-old female, had severe and distinctive lesions. The skeleton was well preserved and all the bones could be examined. Changes indicative of spinal TB were limited to certain sections of the spine, such as the thoracic region. The anterior and lateral surfaces of all the vertebral bones showed slight hypervascularisation and porosity was noted on these surfaces as well as on the upper and lower intervertebral plates. The porosity and hypervascularisation were more pronounced in the thoracic and lumbar vertebrae. Hypertrophic bone formation was observed in the second and third thoracic vertebrae (T2-T3) and marginal lipping, porosity and bone reaction were observed in the T4-T5 vertebral bodies. The most characteristic pathological changes were seen in the third and fourth thoracic vertebrae (Figs 1, 2). R...

Ancient dental pulp: Masterpiece tissue for paleomicrobiology

“…For example , the presence of the agent of tuberculosis, Mycobacterium tuberculosis , in archaeological human remains was suggested by osteological examination and easily confirmed by biomolecular techniques. MALDI‐TOF MS, a new approach by proteomics, identified M. tuberculosis from human ancient bone samples through spectra of proteins (Boros‐Major et al, 2011; Hajdu et al, 2012) and mycolic acids (Mark, Patonai, Vaczy, Lorand, & Marcsik, 2010). Then, an article revealed that the presence of mycolic acids of M. tuberculosis in the previous research was not enough evidence to have confirmation (Minnikin, Lee, Pitts, Baird, & Besra, 2010).…”

Paleoproteomics

“…Most proteomics-based studies to date have focused on infectious diseases that produce visible pathologies in the skeleton, particularly tuberculosis. However, initial enthusiasm for the identification of M. tuberculosis proteins by PMF , was later tempered by LC–MS/MS studies that showed a lack of peak specificity and the difficulty of distinguishing M. tuberculosis peptides from those of other soil mycobacteria . Other studies tried to achieve higher specificity by applying an immunoassay approach, but lacked controls for environmental mycobacteria .…”

Childhood bone tuberculosis from Roman Pécs, Hungary

“…In Hungary, two cases of bone tuberculosis, dated to the Roman period, have been reported previously. Hajdu et al (2012) described a case from Győr, a small 3rd-4th century settlement located near a military facility in Arrabona, where hypertrophic and reactive bone formation and slight angulation were seen in the upper thoracic spine of a young adult woman. Another female individual from Visegrad-Diós, dated between 340 and 430 CE, displays vertebral lesions possibly of tuberculous origin (Merczi, 2001).…”

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