Submitted by Sean Williams on Fri, 09/04/2009 - 12:58
It's a sombre tale; one of death, disease and live burial. But the body of a man found in Rajasthan, India reveals much more than an ancient horror story. The disovery in the town of Balathal, 40km north-east of Udaipur, is tying together some of the mysteries surrounding the tribes of the Indus Valley, who lived in the shadows of the mighty Harappans.
The unfortunate man is thought to have been aged between 25 and 45, and predates the earliest-known human leprosy case by around 2,000 years. The previous oldest was an Egyptian dating to 400-250 BC, though the Ebers Papyrusmentions the disfiguring disease as early as 1,550 BC.
Submitted by veigapaula on Wed, 08/19/2009 - 15:59
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Medical papyri of the time suggest mixing honey with ochre black eye paint that a father asks from his son. Honey has antiseptic properties, and ochre cools down the eyelids and reduces swellings, so the recipe is based on good research.
Over the past five weeks two new studies have been released that are giving scholars new clues as to how leprosy became a global scourge.
The first, and most dramatic, find came out at the end of May and reported on the analysis of a 4,000 year old skeleton from the site of Balathal, a Harappa site, in India. The analysis detected the presence of leprosy, making it, by far, the oldest case known. (For comparison the next oldest cases date to nearly 2,500 years ago)
The Ebers Medical Papyrus was bought in Luxor in 1862 by Edwin Smith. The provenance is unknown although the dealer states it was found between the legs of a mummy in the Assasif necropolis. It is the longest of all the medical papyri with over 110 pages (20m) and is dated to the reign of Amenhotep I (1534 BCE), although some think it may have been a copy of a papyrus dating to the first dynasty (3050-2890 BCE). The papyrus lists a number of diseases including skin conditions, stomach conditions, head trauma, eye diseases and even a reference to what may be Pneumonic plague. The Ebers papyrus also has a section dealing with surgery; primarily concerned with ulcers, tumours and swellings; all are cured with “knife treatment”.
The papyrus seems to be a random collection of diagnosis, symptoms and treatments with no particular order. This could indicate it was a working document, used by a medical professional who referred to it whilst seeing patients, but also added to it when necessary.
It's a sombre tale; one of death, disease and live burial. But the body of a man found in Rajasthan, 
from the site of Balathal, a Harappa site, in India. The analysis detected the presence of leprosy, making it, by far, the oldest case known. (For comparison the next oldest cases date to nearly 2,500 years ago)
