Болезни древних людей - [129]

Doubtless evidence of syphilitic lesions have been found in precolumbian days. The most ancient finds of the kind (syphilitic ostitis and periostitis of the tibia) are dated to the middle of the II millennium В. C. (Bronze Age in Transbaikalia, the Selenga region). In the same region 3 more cases of syphilis have been found in people that lived in the I c. A. D. A number of similar finds have been made in skulls and tubular human bones dated to X–XI c. c. (Sarkel). There are separate finds of the same nature made in lake Ladoga region, XI–XII с. c., in Eski-Kermen, V–XII с. c.). One instance of lesions resulting from tabes dorsalis, i. e. postsyphilitic lesions (arthropathia tabica) has been observed in Sarkel in barrows of the X–XII c. c. However, those were individual and not mass syphilitic cases, the latter remaining typical for Western Europe of the postcolumbian epoch; similar lesions have also been found in a great number of skeletons in burials of old Vyatka (XVII–XVIII с. c.).

Deformation in the bodies of the lower thoracic vertebra, due to continuous pressure of aortic aneurysm has been found in nomads of VIII–X c. c. (Altai district).

The presence of typical groove-like depressions crossing several costal bones is worthy of note. It is the result of pressure exercised by strongly dilated arteries in congenital lesion of the great cardiac vessels, i. e. the coarctation of the aorta in a young girl in the adolescent period (Krasnoyarsk district, Karasuk culture, X–VIII с. с. В. C.).

There were several finds of partial aseptic bone necrosis (osteochondrolysis of the Koenig’s disease type) (Sarkel, X–XII с. c.; Eski-Kermen, V–XII с. c.).

It became possible to date the antiquity of the Urovsky disease (Kaschin — Beck disease). The area where this endemic condition had once raged was much greater than it is nowadays. Characteristic lesions have been observed in human bones pertaining to later neolithic epoch along the banks of the Selenga; also in the same region in the Bronze Age, V–VI с. с. В. С., I c. A. D. and up to VIII–X c. c. Typical Kashin — Beck lesion has been observed in a skeleton from a Kazakhstan barrow dated to XVI c. (3000 kms. away from the endemic centre of the present day).

Benignant growths and tumour-like formations are not at all rare in fossil bones. 14 osteomas have been registered in Eski-Kermen (V–XII с. c.). There are several cases of enchondroma and exchondroma (Sarkel, X–XII с. c.), osteochondroma (Krasnoyarsk district, XV–V с. с. В. C.; Eski-Kermen, V–XII с. c.), osteochondromatosis of joints (Sarkel, X–XII с. c.), multiple hemangiomatta of vertebral bodies (Altai district, nomad of the VIII–X c. c.) several cases of multiple cartilaginous exostosis (in different regions and in different epochs).

Typical multiple myelomatous perforated lesions in the cranial vault of a middle-aged man have been found in the Altai district (in a nomad of VIII–X с. c.).

Various kinds of metastases of cancer in bones, usually multiple metasta-ses, mainly in the vertebral bodies have been registered. We also came across osteolythic sclerosing and mixed metastases. The most ancient find was metastases in vertebra] bodies of a comparatively young female that had lived in North Kazakhstan in the Andronovsky bronze epoch (about XV с. В. C.). Other observations date back to the VII century В. C. (near Saragash lake of Krasnoyarsk district), to the III с. В. C. in the territory of the Tuvinsky A. S. S. R., to the I с. В. C. in the barrow near Biysk. Several cases of multiple cancerous metastases in the vertebral bodies, in the brain and face cranium, and in the skeleton of the limbs have been noted in the inhabitants of Sarkel (X–XII с. c.). Cases of simultaneous presence of cancerous osteophytosis (ossified cancerous periostitis), especially where the lower jaw is involved, together with osteolythic lesions in other bones are especially worthy of note (Sarkel, X–XII с. c.). We have found similar lesions in the brain cranium and in the lower jaw of the famous traveller and ethnographist N. N. Miklukho-Maklai, who died in 1888 at the age of 41 of a disease that remained undiagnosed.

All sorts of abnormalities of development have often been registered as well as occassional actual deformities of the skeleton (Krasnoyarsk district — Aphanasyevsky Culture, Karasuk Culture, Eski-Kermen, V–XII с. c., Ladoga lake region, XI–XII с. c., Sarkel, X–XII с. c.). Twice, malformation of female pelvis impeding normal child-birth has been witnessed (rightbank Tsymlyansky fortress, beginning of the IX c.; Sarkel, X–XII с. c.).

Adaptational and compensatory changes are most remarkable. A manifestation of which is the development of parostosis in short, and more rarely in long tubular bones (Eski-Kermen, V–XII с. c., Sarkel, X–XII с. c., Izyaslavl, 1241), and newly formed osseous rims, torus mandibularis et maxillaris. Bony rims have been most frequently observed in the jawbones of more ancient man (the later neolithic and bronze epoch in the Ukraine and Siberia), while in later periods they become less frequent (the lower jaw of a Scythian king from the Kul-Obah barrow, IV с. В. C.; Eski-Kermen, V–XII с. c., Sarkel, X–XII с. c.).