Page 62 - DILMUN 14

HUMAN DISEASE IN HE
ANCIEN MIDDLE EAS

Bruno Frohlich
Donald ‫ﻝ‬. Ortner
Haya Al‫ ﺙ‬Al-klhalifa

Brno Fohtlicl, Research Associate, Department of Anthropology, Smithsonian
Institution, Washington D.C., U.S.A., and Laboratory of Biological Anthropolo­
gy, Panum Institute, University of Copenhagen Medical School, Denmark.

Donald ‫ﻝ‬. Otner, Curator, Department of Anthropology, Smithsonian Institu­
tion, Washington D.C., U.S.A., and Honorary Visiting Professor, University of
Bradford, England.

Haya Ali At-Khalifa, Assistant Under-Secretary-of Culture and National Heritage,
Ministry of Information, State of Bahrain.

Submitted to DILMUN Magazine, State of Bahrain
June 1988

hroughout human histoyr disease has been a major factor affecting mankind's
ability to live successfully in different geographical areas. he study of the physical
evidence of disease in ancient human societies is called paleopathology and offers
insight into the effect disease has on mankind's ability to live in various
environments. Sources of information on paleopathology include ancient texts, art
objects, mummified human remains, and human skeletons. IAl these sources are
important in paleopathology but because the human skeleton is found in so many
areas of the world, much of what we know of paleopathology is based on this source
of data. he study of skeletal disease in archaeological burials helps to clairyf the
human adaptive response to disease throughout history. In addition, patterns of
bone changes in the skeleton reveal information on the biology , of the disease
process itself and thus help us to understand the pathology.of modern diseases.

he transition from an economic subsistence based on hunting and gathering to
one based on agriculture and nomadic pastoralism represents a signiifcant
boundary in human histoyr, not only culturally and socially, but biologically as

61