Cancer is often thought to be a disease primarily related to contemporary lifestyle and increased life expectancy. Yet archaeologists have just discovered the skeleton of a 3,200-year-old man who had metastasized cancer.
According to the researchers, the shape of the lesions detected on the bones leaves no room for doubt: this 25- to 35-year-old man, whose remains were discovered in Sudan at the archaeological site of Amara West, on the banks of the Nile, was suffering from metastatic cancer. It is to date the most complete and oldest skeleton ever discovered of a human suffering from such cancer, according to researchers at Durham University and the British Museum.
Cancer: understanding the history of the disease
“This skeleton could help us understand the almost unknown history of cancer,” said Michaela Binder, author of the study published in the magazine PlosOne. “We have very few examples of disease from before the first millennium BC. And understanding disease can help us understand its course.”
Until then cancer seemed almost absent from archaeological research. X-rays of the bones of this skeleton revealed cancerous lesions on the bones, with metastases on the collarbones, shoulder blades, vertebrae, arms, ribs, as well as the bones of the thighs and the pelvis.
