Posted on 10/10/2002 11:02:29 AM PDT by chance33_98
Clues to Roman Illnesses in 2,000-Year-Old Cheese
Oct. 9 — By E. J. Mundell
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A tiny piece of cheese, carbonized in the volcanic eruption that killed the citizens of Pompeii, is yielding up secrets as to how ancient Romans ate, lived and died.
Using an electron microscope, anthropological researcher Dr. Luigi Capasso of the State University G. d'Annunzio in Chieti, Italy, has been able to pinpoint goats' milk cheese as a prime source of brucellosis--a debilitating joint disease that ravaged the ancient world.
"Roman cheese was an important and continuous source of possible infectious disease in the Roman world, including brucellosis," he told Reuters Health.
The findings are published in a recent issue of the Journal of Infection.
One night in late August, 79 AD, inhabitants of the great Roman city of Pompeii and the nearby coastal city of Herculaneum were woken by one of the most devastating volcanic eruptions in history as Mount Vesuvius hurled tons of lava and searing ash upon the coastal plain. In Herculaneum, archaeologists have uncovered the remains of 250 people who huddled in caves as they attempted to flee to the sea, their escape cut off by a 25-foot wall of volcanic mud.
The intense heat and then rapid cooling of the mud has left the bones--and even outlines of organs--of these victims in a remarkable state of preservation, allowing medical archaeologists much insight into diseases afflicting Romans in the first century.
According to Capasso, the bones of nearly one in five (17%) inhabitants of Herculaneum display lesions indicating a disease of the joints called brucellosis, caused by infection with the Brucella melitensis bacterium.
Brucella, primarily found in animals like sheep or goats, can be passed to humans via milk or milk products. The disease is relatively rare today, although it remains a source of debilitating arthritic illness in countries such as Yemen or Oman that rely heavily on goat or sheep herding for their milk supply.
But why did so many Romans suffer from this disease? The answer may come from a tiny dehydrated and carbonized piece of cheese, measuring 5 centimeters in diameter, unearthed in Herculaneum and dating from the time of the eruption.
"The cheese is perfectly preserved," Capasso said, so much so that he could still distinguish on the cheese's surface an impression of the basket in which it had been contained.
Capasso used an electron microscope to examine the internal structure of the cheese, and identified two distinct types of bacterial colonies. One, long and arranged in chains, is obviously the common Lactobacilli necessary to the cheese-making process. The other appears spherical, "arranged in large colonies"--very similar in form to Brucella.
Although the carbonization of the cheese makes it impossible to definitely identify the bacterium as Brucella, Capasso says his study "reveals, for the first time, a quantity of bacteria that shows food could, as is now the case, be the reason for human (carriage of Brucella) in an ancient time."
This type of medical archaeology has yielded up other secrets as to ailments afflicting everyday Romans two millenia ago. According to Capasso, "studies of ancient human bones can provide a vivid picture of the state of health of an ancient population."
In a previous study, human remains from the Herculaneum disaster have confirmed that many Romans suffered from head lice, lung ailments due to air pollution, and bone disorders linked to slave labor, as well as numerous diseases and nutritional deficits.
Note: this topic is from 10/10/2002. Thanks chance33_98.Almost 13 years ago, someone missed it, apparently. :') Relevance to the new topic.
What do you call cheese that isn’t yours? Nacho cheese! I know, that a was cheesy joke.
That joke is pretty gouda.
You moved 13 year old cheese!
If the cheese doesn’t get you, the lava will.
Iam missae.
Already posted.
Ad summitatem.
Back to the top.
2013 years old.
Whoops, 1,936 year old cheese.
Hmm. I had a bit of a training regarding that book, and the little foam cheese that’s usually in the office, it’s been, well, moved.
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