A study led by a Charles Sturt University researcher and international colleagues is challenging a long-held assumption about how scientists identify ancient disease from human remains, according to ScienceDaily.
The team examined skeletal remains from archaeological sites in northern and southern Vietnam dating to about 4,000 to 3,200 years ago. Among 309 individuals, the researchers found three young children whose teeth and bones showed signs of congenital treponematosis, a group of diseases that includes syphilis, yaws and endemic syphilis.
According to the study, published in the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, the broader pattern of illness in the population points more toward a nonvenereal treponemal disease such as yaws than toward venereal syphilis. That matters because congenital infection has often been treated as strong evidence of syphilis in archaeological research.
The lead author, Dr. Melandri Vlok, said the findings suggest that congenital transmission can occur in nonvenereal treponemal diseases as well. The researchers said this means some cases previously labeled as congenital syphilis may actually have involved different infections.
The study also adds to the wider debate over the history of syphilis, since no confirmed biological or genetic evidence of pre-Columbian venereal syphilis has been identified inside or outside the Americas. The authors said future work should focus on the broader evolution of treponemal diseases and be carried out in close partnership with communities connected to the remains.
