First bioarchaeological evidence of the familial practice of embalming of infant and adult relatives in Early Modern France.

While medieval and modern embalming practices in Western Europe are attested to historically and bioarcheologically, especially for famous historical figures, there are few recorded occurrences of this type of corpse preparation for a large number of archaeological individuals from the same lineage. Moreover, evidence of such practices mainly concerns adult individuals, whereas traces of child embalming are extremely rare. In 2017, the discovery of a crypt in the chapel of the Château des Milandes (Castelnaud-la-Chapelle, Dordogne, France) revealed a collective burial of the scattered remains of seven adults and five children of the aristocratic Caumont family, who died in the 16th and 17th centuries and whose skeletons all show marks of embalming practices.

Well supplied in life, set aside in death: A multi-isotope study of Justinian plague victims from Saint-Doulchard (France, 7th-8th centuries AD).

Objectives: Justinian plague and its subsequent outbreaks were major events influencing Early Medieval Europe. One of the affected communities was the population of Saint-Doulchard in France, where plague victim burials were concentrated in a cemetery enclosure ditch. This study aimed to obtain more information about their life-histories using the tools of isotope analysis.

A probable case of hypophosphatasia in St Bride's Lower Churchyard (1770-1849, London, UK).

Objectives: The objective of this study was to analyse an individual whose remains are characterised by early deciduous tooth loss and multi-focal lesions on the post-cranial skeleton.

Materials: Skeletal remains of an immature individual buried between 1770 and 1849 in London.

Methods: The remains were examined by visual macroscopic inspection, supplemented by radiographic examination of the mandible and maxillae.

Dual-Source Dual-Energy CT-Scan Confirms the Diagnosis of Ancient Hydatid Cysts Recovered from a Late Roman Burial in Amiens, France.

Background: Two calcified objects recovered from an adolescent in a burial site in Amiens, France, have been previously identified as hydatid cysts using thin-section petrography. The importance of ancient hydatidosis besides the value of these unique archeological excavated materials encouraged the authors to look at this attractive subject more interdisciplinary by implementing medical radiology.

Methods: In the current experiment, which has been carried out in the Radiology Department, Tehran Heart Center (THC), Tehran, Iran, the conventional and dual-energy dual-source Tomography, X-Ray Computed-scan was used in studying the remaining structures of the two calcified masses.

Ten millennia of hepatitis B virus evolution.

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) has been infecting humans for millennia and remains a global health problem, but its past diversity and dispersal routes are largely unknown. We generated HBV genomic data from 137 Eurasians and Native Americans dated between ~10,500 and ~400 years ago. We date the most recent common ancestor of all HBV lineages to between ~20,000 and 12,000 years ago, with the virus present in European and South American hunter-gatherers during the early Holocene.

Complex mortuary dynamics in the Upper Paleolithic of the decorated Grotte de Cussac, France.

The Mid-Upper Paleolithic (Gravettian) karstic Grotte de Cussac (France) contains two areas of human remains in the context of abundant (and spectacular) parietal engravings. The first area (loci 1 and 2) includes the skeleton of a young adult male in a bear nest, rearranged by postdecomposition inundation, and the variably fragmentary remains of at least two individuals distributed across two bear nests, sorted anatomically and with most of the elements constrained to one side of one nest. The second area (locus 3) retains remains of two adults and an adolescent, in upper hollows and variably distributed down the slope, largely segregated into upper versus lower body groups.

Multiple occurrence of premature polyarticular osteoarthritis in an early medieval Bohemian cemetery (Prague, Czech Republic).

Objectives: To highlight conditions that may cause early-onset degenerative joint disease, and to assess the possible impact of such diseases upon everyday life.

Material: Four adults aged under 50 years from a medieval skeletal collection of Prague (Czechia).

Methods: Visual, osteometric, X-ray, and histological examinations, stable isotope analysis of bone collagen.

Phylogeography of the second plague pandemic revealed through analysis of historical Yersinia pestis genomes.

The second plague pandemic, caused by Yersinia pestis, devastated Europe and the nearby regions between the 14 and 18 centuries AD. Here we analyse human remains from ten European archaeological sites spanning this period and reconstruct 34 ancient Y. pestis genomes.

Integrative approach using genomes to revisit the historical landscape of plague during the Medieval Period.

Over the last few years, genomic studies on , the causative agent of all known plague epidemics, have considerably increased in numbers, spanning a period of about 5,000 y. Nonetheless, questions concerning historical reservoirs and routes of transmission remain open. Here, we present and describe five genomes from the second half of the 14th century and reconstruct the evolutionary history of by reanalyzing previously published genomes and by building a comprehensive phylogeny focused on strains attributed to the Second Plague Pandemic (14th to 18th century).

Rich table but short life: Diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis in Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) and its possible consequences.

The exhumation of Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) was performed in 2010 to verify speculative views on the cause of his death. Previous analyses of skeletal and hair remains recovered from his grave refuted the presumption that he died from poisoning. These studies also outlined the possibility that he actually died from an acute illness, echoing the rather vague and inaccurate testimony of some historical records.

Demographic Patterns Distinctive of Epidemic Cemeteries in Archaeological Samples.

The analysis of biological parameters such as age and sex is particularly relevant to the interpretation of ancient skeletal assemblages related to abrupt mortality crises, and more particularly epidemics. In such a context, the mechanisms of selection within a population or part of a population differ according to the pathogen involved. They may also vary depending on the period and location in which the population lived.

Normal growth, altered growth? Study of the relationship between harris lines and bone form within a post-medieval plague cemetery (Dendermonde, Belgium, 16th Century).

Objectives: Harris lines (HLs) are defined as transverse, mineralized lines associated with temporary growth arrest. In paleopathology, HLs are used to reconstruct health status of past populations. However, their etiology is still obscure.

Historical Y. pestis Genomes Reveal the European Black Death as the Source of Ancient and Modern Plague Pandemics.

Ancient DNA analysis has revealed an involvement of the bacterial pathogen Yersinia pestis in several historical pandemics, including the second plague pandemic (Europe, mid-14(th) century Black Death until the mid-18(th) century AD). Here we present reconstructed Y. pestis genomes from plague victims of the Black Death and two subsequent historical outbreaks spanning Europe and its vicinity, namely Barcelona, Spain (1300-1420 cal AD), Bolgar City, Russia (1362-1400 AD), and Ellwangen, Germany (1485-1627 cal AD).

Palaeopathological diagnosis of spondyloarthropathies: Insights from the biomedical literature.

In palaeopathology, the diagnosis of spondyloarthropathies traditionally relies on the association of three types of skeletal lesions: erosive and proliferative modifications of the sacroiliac joint, formation of vertebral syndesmophytes and erosive and proliferative changes in peripheral joints. These conditions can therefore be recognised only in well-preserved skeletons that exhibit the most typical pattern of lesions. In order to develop additional criteria for the diagnosis of spondyloarthropathies, a literature survey was conducted as a preliminary step by comparing biomedical data with the palaeopathological literature.

Probable hepatic capillariosis and hydatidosis in an adolescent from the late Roman period buried in Amiens (France).

Two calcified objects recovered from a 3rd to 4th-century grave of an adolescent in Amiens (Northern France) were identified as probable hydatid cysts. By using thin-section petrographic techniques, probable Calodium hepaticum (syn. Capillaria hepatica) eggs were identified in the wall of the cysts.

Erosive polyarthropathy in a Late Roman skeleton from northern France: A new case of rheumatoid arthritis from the pre-Columbian Old Word?

A skeleton from the Late Roman period, recovered in Amiens, northern France, exhibits multiple symmetrical marginal erosions, primarily involving the metacarpophalangeal and metatarsophalangeal joints. Other skeletal changes include erosions of several peripheral joints and some entheses, and severe osteoporosis. Macroscopic and radiological aspects of the lesions, as well as the absence of spinal and sacroiliac joints involvement, are consistent with a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis.

Distinct clones of Yersinia pestis caused the black death.

From AD 1347 to AD 1353, the Black Death killed tens of millions of people in Europe, leaving misery and devastation in its wake, with successive epidemics ravaging the continent until the 18(th) century. The etiology of this disease has remained highly controversial, ranging from claims based on genetics and the historical descriptions of symptoms that it was caused by Yersinia pestis to conclusions that it must have been caused by other pathogens. It has also been disputed whether plague had the same etiology in northern and southern Europe.