Peruvian mummies show TB, arthritis

CHICAGO, Nov. 28 (UPI) -- A large group of Peruvian mummies -- entombed in sheer cliff caves for hundreds of years -- show signs of tuberculosis and arthritis when X-rayed, researchers report in a new study.

"The X-rays provide us with a window into the past," said Gerald J. Conlogue, co-director of the Bioanthropology Research Institute of Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Conn.

For example, arthritis was common in relatively young men and women, suggesting that both sexes performed heavy manual labor, he said.

Out of 188 complete mummies, 22, or 12 percent, showed traces of arthritis in their spines, he told United Press International. The same number had bone fractures caused by chronic infection with the bacteria that causes tuberculosis or bone lesions resembling those made by tuberculosis. Another 9, or 5 percent, had softer-than-normal bones in the spine, suggesting malnutrition.

"They also had incredibly bad teeth with many cavities and periodontal disease," Conlogue said. "There was a lot of bone erosion, perhaps as a result of genetics or their diet."

Since not everyone who develops tuberculosis --typically a lung disease -- develops infection in the spine, this means that an unusually high percentage of the population may have been infected with the bacteria, said Arther Aufderheide, a professor of pathology at the University of Minnesota, Duluth School of Medicine.

The prevalence of osteoporosis, or weak bones, was also unusually high in the population, he told UPI. That might be due to diet -- some of the plants in the region contain oxalate, which binds to calcium in the gut and keeps it from being absorbed -- or to a variety of other causes.

"There seems to be something unique about these mummies," Aufderheide told UPI.

The mummies come from an ancient Peruvian warrior culture called the Chachapoyans. They left no written records, so most of what is known about them comes through Incan writings, where the Chachapoyans were called "cloud warriors." It is thought that the Incans eventually assimilated the Chachapoyans.

Most of the mummies were found in a fetal position, wrapped in multiple layers of wool made from llama or alpaca fur. They were often buried with pottery, copper knives, and personal belongings like tweezers, which the men used to pluck their beards. Thirty of the 205 mummies were children younger than 12; most were estimated to be in their late teens to early 40s when they died.

The mummies, who had been buried for 500 to a thousand years, were removed from their mountain-side dwellings in 1996 by mule train to avert damage from looters who initially discovered the bodies, Conlogue told UPI.

He and his colleagues hauled a 100-pound portable X-ray machine up to the 10,000-foot high village of Leymebamba, Peru, where the mummies are now housed. They set up a dark room using plastic pipe and black plastic gardening sheets, where they hand-developed the X-ray film.

"A group of almost 200 people from the same culture is enough to provide information that's statistically valuable. Usually mummies are found just a few at a time," said Aufderheide. "These initial X-rays are a very important first step ... which can help decide which bodies to study in more detail in the future."