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conventionalWisdumb t1_j901x8s wrote

Reply to comment by Wagamaga in Religious Hermit Found Buried in The Fetal Position. The woman buried was living with septic arthritis and also advanced venereal syphilis. This would have meant she lived with severe, visible symptoms of infection affecting her entire body, and later on, neurological and mental health decline by Wagamaga

That’s really early in the timeline for syphilis in Europe isn’t it? Is it a known thing that the Colombian Exchange came east prior to Columbus? I know small pox reached the Americas prior due to fishermen, never thought syphilis would have hitched a ride on the trip back.

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yohohoanabottleofrum t1_j92jtts wrote

Ok, your comment got me wondering as it seemed like if it was originally from the Americas, it would have been the first disease I'd hear about doing this. Here's an NIH article on the history....https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3956094/#:~:text=The%20endemic%20syphilis%20emerged%20from,arid%20climate)%20around%207000%20BC.

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conventionalWisdumb t1_j92pdke wrote

Hmmm… …seems like the origins are still being debated. This hermit dig does seem to provide evidence of pre-Colombian syphilis in Europe but it’s still ambiguous whether the disease we know it as today came to Europe via the Americas. A similar finding from a century or two earlier would be more conclusive though one could still make the argument that Vikings could have brought it to Europe though that seems like a huge stretch considering the first recorded outbreak was in Naples in 1494/5. The European origin still has many plausible hypotheses between it being confused with leprosy and the possibility that the outbreak in Naples was from a mutation of a precursor. So yeah…. …who knows.

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yohohoanabottleofrum t1_j93ly65 wrote

Super interesting. Especially the way it was blamed on out groups. I'd be interested to see if it's found on any pre Columbian corpses in the new world. Either way, it's an extremely interesting intersection of biology and sociology.

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