The fear and stigma attached to the terrible disease of leprosy has endured for millennia. Answers have long been sought regarding this mysterious ancient ailment, and now archaeologists have diagnosed leprosy in the skeleton of a young Scandinavian man who died in England in the fifth or sixth century. Did leprosy spread to Britain from Scandinavia 1,500 years ago, and was this man the carrier?
As reported by science site Phys.org, an international team of universities have examined the 1,500-year-old Great Chesterford skeleton, so named for the site where the remains were excavated, in an Anglo-Saxon burial in Essex, England.
The bones are those of a man thought to have died in his 20s. Isotopes from his teeth revealed that he probably did not come from Britain, but instead grew up in northern Europe, or southern Scandinavia. His feet had telltale signs consistent with leprosy, such as narrowing of the toe bones and damage to the joints.
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