The Schistosoma parasite, an egg of which was found at an ancient Meopotamian tomb site in Syria.
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Ancient Etruscan Prince Emerges From Tomb: Photos
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Italian archaeologists have unearthed a 2,600-year-old intact Etruscan tomb that promises to reveal new depths of one of the ancient world’s most fascinating and mysterious cultures.
Rossella Lorenzi
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The unique burial was found in Tarquinia, a hill town about 50 miles northwest of Rome famous for its Etruscan art treasures. The tomb was just a few feet away from the so-called Queen's Tomb, pictured here.
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Blocked by a perfectly sealed stone slab, the rock-cut tomb in appeared promising even before opening it, just by dint of its location next to known royal tombs.
Rossella Lorenzi
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After 2,600 years, the heavy stone slab in front of the tomb was removed.
Massimo Legni/SBAEM/UNITO
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The archaeologists were left breathless by what they found inside.
Rossella Lorenzi
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In the small vaulted chamber, the complete skeleton of an individual was resting on a stone bed on the left. A spear lay along the body, while brooches, on the chest indicated that the man was probably once dressed with a mantle.
Massimo Legni/SBAEM/UNITO
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At his feet stood a dish used during the funeral meal. Food remains were still there, after 2,600 years.
Massimo Legni/SBAEM/UNITO
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Near the dish with the food remains stood a large bronze basin, possibly used to wash the hands after the meal.
Massimo Legni/SBAEM/UNITO
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A stone table directly across from the man might contain the incinerated remains of another person.
Massimo Legni/SBAEM/UNITO
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Decorated with a red strip, the upper part of the wall featured, along with several nails, a small hanging vase, which might have contained some ointment.
Massimo Legni/SBAEM/UNITO
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A number of grave goods, which included large Greek Corinthian vases and precious ornaments, lay on the floor.
Massimo Legni/SBAEM/UNITO
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According to Mandolesi, the fact that the newly discovered burial lies a few feet away from the Queen’s Tomb indicates that it belonged to one of the princes of Tarquinia, someone strictly related to the owners of the Queen’s Tomb. A rare find indeed.
Rossella Lorenzi
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Some of the earliest evidence of a human parasite infection has been unearthed in an ancient burial site in Syria.
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The egg of a parasite that still infects people today was found in the burial plot of a child who lived 6,200 years ago in an ancient farming community.
"We found the earliest evidence for a parasite [that causes] Schistosomiasis in humans," said study co-author Dr. Piers Mitchell, a biological anthropologist at the University of Cambridge in England. The oldest Schistosoma egg found previously, in Egyptian mummies, was dated to 5,200 years ago.
The parasite egg hails from the Fertile Crescent, a region around the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in the Middle East, where some of the first irrigation techniques were invented about 7,500 years ago.
That suggests that advances in farming technologies caused the rise of human infections with the water-borne worm, Mitchell told Live Science. ( 7 Stunning Archaeological Sites in Syria)
Schistosoma parasites live in freshwater snails and burrow into human skin when people wade into warm, fresh water. In the Middle East, the parasite typically infects the blood vessels in the kidneys and can lead to blood in the urine, anemia and eventually bladder cancer, while in Africa, the flatworm typically infects the bowels, where it causes bleeding and anemia as well. The parasite can spread when eggs are shed in the feces or urine of infected people.
Agricultural technologies are tied to the parasite's prevalence, experts say.
"Studies in Africa in modern times have shown that farming, irrigation and dams are by far the most common reasons why people get Schistosomiasis," Mitchell told Live Science.
The egg was uncovered in a cemetery with 26 skeletons at a site called Tell Zeidan in Syria. The site was occupied by people from about 7,800 to 5,800 years ago, and may have housed a few thousand people, said study co-author Gil Stein, the director of excavations at the site and an archaeologist at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.
The team collected samples of soil from around the skeletons' abdomens, where the parasite would be expected to be found, and also from around the feet and heads, which served as a control (eggs found there would suggest the soil at the site was contaminated with the parasite more recently). The researchers sifted through the soil, looking for particles that were the right size to be the parasite's egg — just 0.003 inches (0.1 millimeter) in diameter, Mitchell said. They then mixed those particles with water and placed them under a microscope.