The DNA of a 1st century shrouded man found in a tomb on the
edge of the Old City of Jerusalem has revealed the earliest proven
case of leprosy. Details of the research will be published December
16 in the PloS ONE Journal.
The molecular investigation was undertaken by Prof. Mark
Spigelman and Prof. Charles Greenblatt and of the Sanford F. Kuvin
Center for the Study of Infectious and Tropical Diseases at the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Prof. Carney Matheson and Ms. Kim
Vernon of Lakehead University, Canada, Prof. Azriel Gorski of New
Haven University and Dr. Helen Donoghue of University College
London. The archaeological excavation was led by Prof. Shimon
Gibson, Dr. Boaz Zissu and Prof. James Tabor on behalf of the
Israel Antiquities Authority and the University of North Carolina
at Charlotte.
The burial cave, which is known as the Tomb of the Shroud, is
located in the lower Hinnom Valley and is part of a 1st century
C.E. cemetery known as Akeldama or 'Field of Blood' (Matthew
27:3-8; Acts 1:19) - next to the area where Judas is said to have
committed suicide. The tomb of the shrouded man is located next to
the tomb of Annas, the high priest (6-15 C.E.), who was the father
in law of Caiaphas, the high priest who betrayed Jesus to the
Romans. It is thus thought that this shrouded man was either a
priest or a member of the aristocracy. According to Prof. Gibson,
the view from the tomb would have looked directly toward the Jewish
Temple.
No second burial
What is particularly rare about this tomb is that it was clear
this man, which is dated by radiocarbon methods to 1-50 C.E., did
not receive a secondary burial. Secondary burials were common
practice at the time, where the bones were removed after a year and
placed in an ossuary (a stone bone box). In this case, however, the
entrance to this part of the tomb was completely sealed with
plaster. Prof. Spigelman believes this is due to the fact that this
man had suffered from leprosy and died of tuberculosis, as the DNA
of both diseases was found in his bones.
Historically, disfiguring diseases - particularly leprosy -
caused the afflicted individuals to be ostracized from their
communities. However, a number of indications – the location
and size of the tomb, the type of textiles used as shroud
wrappings, and the clean state of the hair – suggest that the
shrouded individual was a fairly affluent member of society in
Jerusalem and that tuberculosis and leprosy may have crossed social
boundaries in the first century C.E.
Disproves Turin Shroud?
This is also the first time fragments of a burial shroud have
been found from the time of Jesus in Jerusalem. The shroud is very
different to that of the Turin Shroud, hitherto assumed to be the
one that was used to wrap the body of Jesus. Unlike the complex
weave of the Turin Shroud, this is made up of a simple two-way
weave, as the textiles historian Dr. Orit Shamir was able to
show.
Based on the assumption that this is representative of a typical
burial shroud widely used at the time of Jesus, the researchers
conclude that the Turin Shroud did not originate from Jesus-era
Jerusalem.
The excavation also found a clump of the shrouded man's hair,
which had been ritually cut prior to his burial. These are both
unique discoveries because organic remains are hardly ever
preserved in the Jerusalem area owing to high humidity levels in
the ground.
Social health in antiquity
According to Prof. Spigelman and Prof. Greenblatt, the origins
and development of leprosy are largely obscure. Leprosy in the Old
Testament may well refer to skin rashes such as psoriasis. The
leprosy known to us today was thought to have originated in India
and brought over to the Near East and to Mediterranean countries in
the Hellenistic period. The results from the first-century C.E.
Tomb of the Shroud fill a vital gap in our knowledge of this
disease.
Furthermore, the new research has shown that molecular pathology
clearly adds a new dimension to the archaeological exploration of
disease in ancient times and provides us with a better
understanding of the evolution, geographic distribution and
epidemiology of disease and social health in antiquity.
The co-infection of both leprosy and tuberculosis here and in 30
percent of DNA remains in Israel and Europe from the ancient and
modern period provided evidence for the postulate that the medieval
plague of leprosy was eliminated by an increased level of
tuberculosis in Europe as the area urbanized.
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