Possible congenital hemolytic anemia in prehistoric coastal inhabitants of Israel

Abstract

The spread of thalassemia among prehistoric populations of the Mediterranean Basin has been linked to the increased risk to early agriculturalists posed by the Plasmodium falciparum parasite. The diagnosis of the disease in human skeletal remains, however, has usually been based on a single pathological criterion, porotic hyperostosis. This paper reports on what we believe to be the earliest case of thalassemia yet identified in the prehistoric record. Our diagnosis of the disease in an individual from the submerged Prepottery Neolithic B village of Atlit-Yam off the Israeli coast is based on a pathological humerus demonstrating a pattern of deformation characteristic of clinical thalassemia. The implications of these findings for our understanding of human societies undergoing the transition from foraging to agriculture in the Near East are discussed.

Frequency of cribra orbitalia in the subadult medieval population from Gruczno, Poland

“…The main reason behind the formation of cribra orbitalia is thought to be anaemia resulting from iron deficiency (Hengen, 1971;Lallo et al, 1977;StuartMacadam, 1985StuartMacadam, , 1992Walker, 1986), which in turn may be related to poor living conditions and infectious disease (Stuart-Macadam, 1987, 1989. The quality of health and hygiene within a population seem to be factors decisive for the frequency of cribra orbitalia, in particular in the regions free from genetically induced anaemia (Angel, 1966;Hershkovitz et al, 1991). Bergman (1988Bergman ( , 1993 published interesting data indicating a relation between the occurrence of cribra orbitalia and the type of graves found in a medieval burial ground, suggesting that the individuals buried with goods were most likely to come from families living in better conditions and therefore they were also the individuals with a distinctly lower frequency of cribra orbitalia.…”

Humerus varus deformity in Roman period burials from Kellis 2, Dakhleh, Egypt

“…The only cases of HVD reported in the paleoepidemiological literature are the description by Hershkovitz et al (1991) of a 16 -17-year-old Neolithic burial (#25) from the Atlit-Yam site in Israel, and the analysis by Ortner and Putschar (1981) of the humeri from an early dynastic adolescent/ adult burial from Egypt. In the former case, thalassemia is the suggested cause of the varus deformity, because of its known association with thalassemia and because the site is located in the Mediterranean region where thalassemia evolved.…”

“…Ortner andPutschar (1981), andHershkovitz et al (1991) describe the only other archaeological cases of HVD. The affected humeri were shortened, their glenohumeral joints deformed, and their upper diaphyses were angulated.…”

Glenoid retroversion: The palaeopathological perspective

“…They are only discussed as a differential diagnosis of other pathological conditions of the scapulohumeral joint, as in Mays (2009) for cases of probable primary dysplasia. In contexts of thalassemia, infection or trauma, attention usually focuses on humeral lesions, while glenoid lesions are seen only as secondary osteoarthritis (Hershkovitz et al, 1991;Pálfi, 1997, p. 40;Molto, 2000;Kacki et al, 2013). Similarly, in rotator cuff disease (Roberts et al, 2007), there is no reference to glenoid version, although it probably has a predisposing role in the distribution of muscle stress, with retroversion related more often to anterior cuff tears (Tétreault et al, 2004).…”