Croatian Skeletons Leave Clues About Cancer (ca. 5,300 BC – 19th C)
According to forensic analysis of over 3,000 human skeletons from a collection in Croatia, dating from as early as 5,300 BC to as late as the mid-19th century, Europeans in ancient times had little to fear from the threat of cancer – in fact, it was an extremely rare disease. Analysis showed that there was a widespread variety of other infectious diseases that could prove fatal, however out of a sample of over 3,000 skeletons, only four ancient skeletons showed any signs of cancer’s telltale imprints.
1) Skeleton of a teenager: From a 4th-century necropolis at a former Roman colony town, tumors were found on this body’s thighbones.
2) Skull of a 50/60-year-old: From the island of Vis in the Adriatic Sea, the skull dates to the 3rd or 4th century BC and showed signs of a tumor.
3) Three or four year old child: From a Medieval cemetery near the town of Zagreb, evidence of a benign tumor was found in the bones.
4) Skeleton of a 40-year-old: From an 11th-century cemetery in Lobor, this man’s tumor was also in the thighbone.
Considering that the signs of other diseases were much more common – such as syphilis, leprosy and tuberculosis – it seems that cancer was as strange a phenomenon to ancient cultures as leprosy is to modern society.
The theory as to why this is the case simply seems to be: modern humans live longer. The average age of mortality in the bones studied from the Croatian collection was 36 years old, while the modern life expectancy in Croatia is 74 years old. Thus, it seems that the longer a person lives, the more likely it is a slow cancer will develop.
As envious as modern society may be that these ancient ancestors had little to fear when it came to cancer, the blunt truth of the matter is that something else was bound to kill them first – ending the course of their lives long before cancer ever became an issue.
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