© Miguel Botella LopezTwo skulls excavated from the Qubbet el-Hawa necropolis in Egypt.
The bodies come from the Qubbet el-Hawa necropolis, which is near the modern city of Aswan in southern Egypt. Constructed in the 12th dynasty (between 1939 B.C. and 1760 B.C.) and re-used in later periods, the necropolis contains remains of people from across the social spectrum.
An analysis of more than 200 of these bodies, which has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal, finds that wealth did not necessarily buy health in ancient Egypt.
"Although the cultural level of the age was extraordinary, the anthropological analysis of the human remains reveals the population in general, and the governors - the highest social class - lived in conditions in which their health was very precarious, on the edge of survival," study researcher Miquel Botella Lopez of the University of Granada said in a statement.
Life expectancy was only about 30 years, the researchers found, thanks to a high infant mortality rate, malnutrition and gastrointestinal infections caused by drinking polluted Nile waters. A great many of the dead in the necropolis were between 17 and 25 years old, the researchers announced today (March 6).
Not as stated. Malnutrition? even the elite? Deaths at the early second decade? Gastrointestinal infections? from a citizenry that has never lived any place else?
No.
This sounds like a new bacteria or mutated one making its way through the population.
I theorize that at this time and before, global climate experienced a severe crisis. The population that inhabited the Eden of a green Sahara experienced a severe event that forced the relocation to the Nile and even there the water may have been contaminated by earth radiation or by epigenetically altered bacteria.
Close examination of historical documents indicate a strong interest in healing herbs and of course, this medical interest is behind the evident early achievements.
Genetic tracing indicates the migration from a point off the west coast of Ireland that radiated outward like spokes from a wheel. The highland of Europe were the recipients of this pre historical move that resulted in the Vinca group, which spread down from the mountain areas as the Earth recovered.