Archaeologists Uncover Remains Of Ancient Egyptian Plague Victims b4in.org/h4hO A team of Italian archaeologists has uncovered the remains of ancient plague victims at an ancient burial plot in what is now Luxor, Egypt, according to research appearing in the latest edition of the Egypt Exploration Society journal Egyptian Archaeology. Between 250 AD and 271 AD, as many as 5,000 people died each day as a result of the disease, explained Owen Jarus in an article published by LiveScience. The epidemic became known as the Plague of Cyprian, and it so impacted the Roman Empire that one ancient writer believed it would lead to the end of the world. Now, researchers working with the Italian Archaeological Mission to Luxor (MAIL) at the Funerary Complex of Harwa and Akhimenru in the ancient city of Thebes discovered remains that had been coated with a thick layer of lime – a substance typically used as a disinfectant, according to Jarus. They also located three kilns that had stored the lime, and a giant bonfire containing the bodies of plague victims that had been burned to halt the spread of the disease. Lead investigator Francesco Tiradritti of the Università di Enna Unikore and his colleagues worked at the Funerary Complex from 1997 until 2012, said the Daily Mail’s Jonathan O’Callaghan. The monument located there had been constructed in honor of the Egyptian grand steward Harwa in the seventh-century BC, and was used regularly until becoming a burial site in the third-century AD. According to O’Callaghan, Tiradritti and his co-authors wrote that using the tomb to dispose of infected corpses gave it “a lasting bad reputation and doomed it to centuries of oblivion until tomb robbers entered the complex in the early 19th century.” The Plague of Cyprian claimed approximately 25 percent of those living in the Roman Empire, which included Egypt at the time, and is now believed to have been caused by smallpox. Saint Cyprian, a bishop of Carthage, wrote that he believed the plague signified the end of the world, and according to Jarus, he also left a detailed description of the agony suffered by those that contracted it. More b4in.org/h4hO
Posted on: Wed, 18 Jun 2014 13:21:44 +0000
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