<< News >> Prehistoric mystery of killer disease in Britain
Submitted by vicky on Wednesday, 06 November 2002 Page Views: 794
DiscoveriesA CHILD who died 3,500 years ago could be Britain’s earliest known victim of leprosy. If initial tests are confirmed, the killer disease may have arrived in Britain 1,500 years earlier than first thought.The evidence was taken from a skull unearthed near Dunbar, East Lothian.
Julie Roberts, a biological anthropologist with Glasgow University’s archaeological research division, who made the diagnosis, said: "Although the diagnosis of leprosy cannot be confirmed until DNA tests are complete, the indications are quite promising.
"The child is known to have died between 1600BC and 2000BC. This would predate the previously accepted arrival of leprosy in Britain by up to 1,500 years. If this is the case, then leprosy took some other, unknown, route through Europe’s early societies."
Fourteen skeletons from the Bronze and Iron Ages were excavated at the burial site in 1980. But re-examination of the pre-historic bones has only just thrown up the new findings.
Source: The Scotsman 06/11/02
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