Scientists find earliest case of human cancer in man who died 4,500 years ago
The earliest known case of cancer has been recognized in the skeleton of a Siberian Bronze Age man. The 4,500-year-old bones have important marks and holes, alerting researchers to the devastating lung or prostate cancer that the ancient man had endured. This new proof of the illness in ancient bones demonstrates that cancer is not only a modern phenomenon, but also affected the ancient world.
The Baikal-Kokkaido Archaeological Project and research team which located the rare find was comprised of international experts, including bioarchaeologist Angela Lieverse of the University of Saskatchewan in Canada, archaeologist Vladimir Bazaliiskii of Irkutsk State University in Russia, and biological anthropologist Daniel Temple, of George Mason University in the U.S., reports The Siberian Times.
The remains of the man, dating from the Early Bronze Age, show he was 35 to 45 years of age at the time of his death. He had suffered from a cancer which increases throughout his body, the deterioration of his bones leaving him motionless. It was almost certain that those around him would have recognized he was ill. They had situated him in a circular grave in the fetal position, his knees drawn up into his chest, and he was covered with a crooked bone serpent spoon, among other items. According to CBCNews this type of burial is in contrast to other men at the time who were buried on their backs with fishing or hunting gear.
Daniel Temple told George Mason University News “The people who lived with him maybe knew something was wrong … they gave him something that symbolized illness had visited him. Grave goods have deep symbolic meaning, and when contextualized with these skeletal lesions, it is likely that the object reflected the circumstances nearby this individual’s illness and death.”
Temple also touched upon the importance of the find, saying that diagnosing a case of cancer from 4,500 years ago is related to how modern cancers are viewed. Environmental causes and industrial contaminants are often blamed as the cause of modern cancers, and while this find does not challenge that link, the current accepting of cancer can be expanded with this additional information, according to George Mason University News.
Lieverse told CBCNews of the sad fate of the ancient man as exposed by his bones, “He must have lived a distinct life in his community but he also would have skilled a most excruciating death. Near the end, he would have been nauseous, fatigued, unable to breathe and in constant pain. It’s a tragic story. It breaks your heart to think of what he went through.”
Perhaps his pain was mitigated by those around him. There is proof which suggests that pain management in ancient times was gifted through the use of natural techniques, such as herbs, or cannabis. The 2,500-year-old mummy of a woman found in 1993 in a kurgan (mound) of the Pazyryk culture in the Republic of Altai, Russia, was buried with a pouch of cannabis, usually known as marijuana. Found by her body, the Princess of Ukok may have used it to cope with the symptoms of her illness. Researchers exposed that the young woman died from breast cancer, and suffered numerous other ailments.