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7 - Atherosclerosis among the Elites

A Bioarchaeological Investigation of Seventeenth- to Nineteenth-Century Mummified Human Remains from Palermo, Sicily (Italy) and Vilnius (Lithuania)

from Part I - Evidence from Mummified Tissues

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 March 2023

By
Dario Piombino-Mascali ,
Rimantas Jankauskas ,
Albert Zink  and
Stephanie Panzer
Edited by
Michaela Binder ,
Charlotte A. Roberts  and
Daniel Antoine
Michaela Binder
Affiliation:
Novetus GmbH Archaeological Services
Charlotte A. Roberts
Affiliation:
Durham University
Daniel Antoine
Affiliation:
British Museum, London
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Summary

As early as the mid-nineteenth century, tangible evidence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) was found in Egyptian mummies, indicating that these people must have experienced atherosclerosis in the same way as modern humans do (Czermak, 1852; Ruffer, 1921). It has been suggested that the origin of the condition among the Egyptian elites was their diet, given that these people consumed food rich in saturated fat (David et al., 2010). However, we do not possess much data on the non-elite individuals from the Nile Valley, as they could not afford mummification.

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The Bioarchaeology of Cardiovascular Disease , pp. 130 - 144
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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