Original scientific paper
A Case of Venereal Syphilis in the Modern Age Horizon of Graves near the Church of St. Lawrence in Crkvari
Mario Šlaus
; Department of Archaeology, Croatian Academy of Sciences and Art, Zagreb, Croatia
Mario Novak
; Department of Archaeology, Croatian Academy of Sciences and Art, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
This work presents an analysis of the skeleton of a woman between 41 and 45 years of age from grave 40 of the cemetery around the church of St. Lawrence in Crkvari near Orahovica. The skeleton is dated to the Modern Age layer of burials and radiocarbon dating gives limits between 1478 and 1636. The skeleton contains pathological modifications characteristic for the presence of venereal syphilis. These consist of strong, active and generalized inflammatory processes that affected almost the entire skeleton and which are particularly prominent on the lower leg bones. A differential diagnosis excluded the possibility that the agents of these modifications are leprosy, tuberculosis, certain types of osteomyelitis and two other types of treponematoses (bejel and frambesia). The historical data on the emergence of syphilis in Slavonia during the Turkish rule have not been discovered yet. Taking into consideration the immediate vicinity of Hungary, and the assumption that syphilis was brought to Hungary by Spanish soldiers during the 16th and 17th centuries, it is possible that this is where the venereal syphilis that infected the woman from Crkvari came from. The assumption that syphilis was brought to Europe by Columbus and his crew from their first voyage from America will have to be critically reassessed, considering that today many well documented cases of syphilis in Europe before Columbus are known. Finally, the need is stressed for additional research in the archives and on the bone material in order to identify the sources and directions of the spread of syphilis and other infectious diseases in the territory of Croatia.
Keywords
syphilis; treponematoses; Slavonia; the Modern Age
Hrčak ID:
25867
URI
Publication date:
9.7.2008.
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