Scanning Electron Microscope Study of Ancient Parasite Eggs Recovered From Korean Mummies of the Joseon Dynasty

Abstract

We have previously shown that parasite eggs have been identified in the coprolites of Korean mummies. These eggs have shed light on parasitic infection patterns in Korean populations living several hundred years ago. We conducted a scanning electron microscopy (SEM) study on ancient Trichuris trichiura, Ascaris lumbricoides, Metagonimus yokogawai, Paragonimus westermani, and Gymnophalloides seoi eggs recovered from Korean mummies of the Joseon Dynasty. We anticipated that the taphonomic conditions of mummification would alter the eggs of certain species but not of others. Our SEM data show that each species of ancient egg exhibited different degrees of preservation. Thus, some of them, for example, M. yokogawai, exhibited a better preservation status than others, suggesting that they should be the first candidates considered when choosing subjects for future paleoparasitological studies.

Parasitology in an archaeological context: analysis of medieval burials in Nivelles, Belgium

“…The results of T. trichiura and A. lumbricoides are relevant to this study. Shin et al (2009) found that the eggs of T. trichiura were generally well preserved but that the mucoid polar plugs were often lost in mummified eggs. They found that archaeological A. lumbricoides eggs were broken or flattened and that the details of the mammillated coats were not well preserved.…”

Food, parasites, and epidemiological transitions: A broad perspective

“…), and the lung fluke (Paragonimus sp.). From Korea, a variety of researchers reported M. yokogawai, Paragonimus westermani, Gymnophalloides seoi and Taenia eggs f in mummies , Seo et al, 2009, Shin et al, 2009a, 2009b, 2011. Thus, food related parasites were very well established in Asia.…”

Taphonomic considerations of a whipworm infection in a mummy from the Dominican Church of the Holy Spirit, Vilnius, Lithuania

“…The T. trichiura eggs were thin-walled and variously damaged or deformed in comparison to eggs of the same species recovered from mummies from other sites ( Aspöck et al, 1996;Martinson et al, 2003;Seo et al, 2007;Shin et al, 2009;Kumm et al, 2010). The polar plugs may not have been missing, but rather may not have yet been formed.…”

“…The preservation of eggs in mummies ranges from pristine (Kumm et al, 2010) to excellent (Seo et al, 2007;Shin et al, 2009), deformed (Reinhard and Urban, 2003) to degraded (Searcey et al, 2013). Some whipworm eggs documented by Kumm et al (2010) were fully embryonated which is unexpected in mummy contexts.…”