Study: Medieval Skeletons Had Syphilis

L O N D O N, Aug. 29 -- Recent excavations at a medieval friary inNorthern England add weight to the theory that syphilis didn’t cometo Europe from the New World.

Skeletons excavated at Hull, dated to between 1300 and 1450, hadclear signs of syphilis, said Anthea Boylston, a paleopathologistand leader of an archaeological team from University of Bradford innorth England that conducted the dig. Several other skeletons alsoshowed signs of the disease, she said.

Scientists long have argued about whether syphilis was broughtto the Americas by European explorers, transmitted the other wayaround, or arose independently in each region. Skeletons studiedearlier in Europe have suggested that the disease was presentbefore Christopher Columbus returned from his first voyage.

Europeans seemed to become aware of the disease after 1500, butsome researchers believe that syphilis may have been confused withleprosy in earlier times.

Syphilis starts out as sores, develops into a rash, fever andfatigue, and years after initial infection, may develop into severecomplications of the heart and brain.

Advanced Cases of Disease

“This discovery changes our views about the history ofsyphilis,” Boylston said. “There had been a couple of skeletonsaround the country with signs of syphilis that could have predatedColumbus, but the interesting thing about this burial site is thereare cases of the disease in many individuals, not just one ortwo,” she said.

“That makes us think that syphilis was present in medievalEngland.”

David Evans, who directed excavations at the Augustinian friary,dated the skeletons somewhat later — between 1450 and 1475 — basedon stratification.

Four skeletons showed signs of the disease, Evans said in anarticle in the June edition of British Archaeology.

“The disease, which takes some 20 years before it begins toleave its mark on the bone, was quite advanced at the time ofdeath,” Evans wrote. “These victims had contracted syphilis longbefore the return of Columbus and his ships from the New World —traditionally regarded as the time when ‘the Great Pox’ wasintroduced into Europe.”