Remarkable Discovery of an Ovarian Teratoma in Ancient Egypt

Figure 1: Ovarian teratoma found at Armana (Source: A. Deblauwe)

 

The study of the dead can yield a wealth of information about people of the past.  While archaeological investigations focus on the material culture (the items created/manipulated and used by humans), bioarchaeological research goes one step further by combining the study of human remains with archaeological evidence (artifacts) to provide a holistic understanding of the human experience in the past.  Today’s blog post addresses how the bioarchaeological approach has provided new evidence concerning ovarian teratomas and ancient Egyptian beliefs.

 

In 2023 Gretchen Dabbs, Melinda King Wetzel, and Anna Stevens published their analysis of an 18 to 21-year-old female who resided at the site of Armana in Egypt in 1345 BC.  The site had been the capital during Pharaoh Akhenaton’s rule, which ushered in various changes throughout Egypt.  This is in part why the site is studied, but what Dabbs, Wetzel, and Stevens ultimately published on was both unrelated and unexpected.  During an excavation of a multichambered tomb, the final resting place for non-elite individuals, Wetzel, an archaeologist, noticed something atypical while carefully excavating the mortuary contexts of the aforementioned female.  She noticed a tooth in the pelvic area, which she initially assumed belonged to a fetus.  When she brought the discovery to Dabbs’ attention a different conclusion began to take shape.  Dabbs, a bioarchaeologist, realized the advanced maturation of the teeth, which were permanent (adult) teeth, ruled out the presence of a fetus. 

 

A more thorough investigation took place, relying on the contextual evidence available to them.  Careful excavation procedures and detailed documentation ruled out the presence of another individual’s skeletal remains being comingled (mixed in) with the deceased female’s remains.  Examination of the teeth and their location within the female’s body, specifically near or at the location of where an ovary would have been present, led the researchers to conclude that these teeth were part of an ovarian osteoma (Figure 1).  Such tumors are masses of hard and soft tissues, including bones, teeth, and sometimes parts of organs.  They are found within the ovaries or testes, and while benign they can cause discomfort, pain, and infertility.  This particular osteoma was about an inch in size.  The evaluation of the grave goods, particularly a ring present on the female’s hand that laid to rest on her hip, suggested this osteoma may have been painful and prevented her from conceiving children.  This conclusion was reached based on the presence of the goddess Bes on the ring.  This Egyptian deity was associated with fertility, and the deceased female may have worn the ring inscribed with Bes to alleviate her pain and encourage pregnancy.

 

While this discovery is remarkable in and of itself it is even more so since this is only one of five such discoveries made thus far.  Three osteomas had been discovered in European contexts and another was found in Peru.  This osteoma predates the previous four, making it the oldest documented osteoma.  It is also the first documented case in Egyptian contexts and the first found on the African continent.  Furthermore, the archaeological evidence provides more information concerning medical and ideological practices among Egyptians in the 14th century BCE.

 

Bibliography

Cassella, Carly. "Scientists Find a Tumor Made of Teeth in The Pelvis of an Ancient Egyptian." 13 November 2023. Science Alert. Electronic. 8 August 2024.

Dabbs, Gretchen R., Anna Stevens and Melinda King Wetzel. "A mature ovarian teratoma from New Kingdom Amarna, Egypt." International Journal of Paleopathology (2023): 99-105. Print.

Jackson, Justin. "Ancient Egyptian burial reveals ovarian teeth in oldest example of teratoma." 9 November 2023. Phys.org. Electronic. 8 August 2024.

Killgrove, Kristina. "Rare tumor with teeth discovered in Egyptian burial from 3,000 years ago." 7 November 2023. Live Science. Electronic. 8 August 2024.

 

Applied Anthropologist Profile: Patricia M. Clay, Ph.D., Anthropologist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

Patricia (Trish) Clay, Ph.D. (Source: NOAA)

 

In an interview with her employer, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Patricia (Trish) Clay said, “One of the things I love about being an anthropologist is that our topic of study is humans. We can study anything people do or think or believe. There are always new and interesting topics to study because people are endlessly inventive.” This sums up not just the purpose of anthropological study but what she was hired to do within the NOAA.  She was the first anthropologist employed by the NOAA, who sought out such expertise to delve deeper into the sociocultural aspects of fisheries and fishing communities.  She has done that and more in her role as Anthropologist for the NOAA’s Social Science Division, and this blog post will address the entirety of her career, from undergraduate student to present day.

 

Clay grew up globetrotting around the world due to her parents’ line of work.  This enabled her to be exposed to and an active participant among various cultural groups.  This would seem like fertile ground to inspire her to study anthropology, but that was not the case.  She enrolled at the University of Notre Dame with aspirations of becoming a social engineer, but she ultimately majored in anthropology after she enrolled in an introductory anthropology course.  Falling in love with the subject matter and being adept in three languages she earned her degrees in Anthropology and Modern Languages in 1981. 

 

She wanted to pursue her graduate studies in linguistics, but she took a gap year to work alongside her father in Venezuela.  It was here where she took a position working for the Venezuelan government.  She was responsible for completing an ethnographic study on local farming and local fishing communities.  This ignited a new passion within her, and she decided to pursue her doctoral research on fishing communities instead of linguistic anthropology. 

 

Clay joined the doctoral program at Indiana University, pursuing research in Venezuela again.  Her doctoral research focused on two very similar fishing communities that received government funding to improve fish production and the living conditions of the local fishermen.  Despite the similarities in the communities and funding opportunities only one program was successful.  Clay realized that it was not economic or environmental factors that affected the failure or success of the program.  It was actually social factors that predicted the program success.  The successful program had a manager who had a great deal of social capital, which increased buy in and cooperation from both employees (fishermen) and the community at large.  The other program did not have this, and it ultimately failed as a result.

 

As is expected of any graduate student Clay was presenting and publishing her research widely.  While attending at conference she met a sociologist employed at the NOAA.  During their conversation he informed her that his branch was looking to hire an anthropologist, the first ever for the organization, and she should apply.  She did and successfully landed the position the same year she defended her dissertation (in 1993).  As excited as she was to take on the responsibilities of this new role she ran into some challenges.  First, many of her colleagues, particularly the hard scientists, saw no value in her anthropological expertise, so they provided little support.  Second, because she was the first anthropologist employed at the NOAA her job responsibilities were undefined.  Rather than shrink away she took advantage of her situation and showed everyone what value she could bring to the position.  She worked hard and demonstrated the utility of anthropological research in better understanding the issues the hard scientists were investigating, and she used the lack of definition of her position to explore research and problems that she identified as she explored the NOAA’s projects. 

 

This caused her to be asked to define similar positions at other NOAA branches, which she has done over the decades she has worked for the agency.  She also was tapped to help various state and federal agencies write legislation to improve fishing regulations.  Her individual work has also been instrumental in humanizing the problems faced by fisheries and fishers.  She has conducted oral histories on fishermen, completed sociocultural studies on marine mammals and their interactions with fishermen and their vessels, and identified both qualitative and quantitative indicators for assessing the health of fishing communities.  She has served on numerous boards and organizations, and she was recently awarded the Society of Applied Anthropology’s Bronislaw Malinowski Award. 

 

Ultimately, Clay’s work demonstrates the need for anthropologists in any area where humans are involved, which means that any organization, business, or agency can benefit from using anthropological knowledge and expertise.  Anthropologists help understand and assess the human aspects of any problem that may exist or help identify the issues that affect the humans that are impacted.  She most certainly has made a positive impact not only at the NOAA but for fishermen and fisheries both in the US and across the globe, which also means that she has helped all people directly and indirectly impacted by their work.

 

Works Cited

Clay, Patricia. "Biography: Patricia Clay." n.d. Danny Yee. Electronic. 24 May 2024.

NOAA Fisheries. " Patricia M. Clay, Ph.D.: Anthropologist." n.d. NOAA Fisheries. Electronic. 24 May 2024.

Society for Applied Anthropology. "2024 Bronislaw Malinowski Award." 2024. Society for Applied Anthropology. Electronic. 24 May 2024.

Soulen, Heather. "Women's History Month: Talking with Patricia Clay." 18 March 2020. NOAA Fisheries. Electronic. 24 May 2024.

 

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Applied Anthropologist Profile: Dr. Selma Al-Radi, Archaeologist and Preservationist of the Amiriya Madrasa

Figure 1: Dr. Selma Al-Radi (Source: Trowelblazers)

 

Not all heroes wear capes.  It could be argued that most do not intend on becoming heroes.  While the definition of what and who is a hero can and is debated it can be successfully argued that Dr. Selma Al-Radi, an Iraqi archaeologist, is a hero (Figure 1).  She dedicated her career to pursuing her love of archaeology, opening doors for women in the region, as well as restoring one of the area’s most magnificent structures. 

 

Born on July 23, 1939 to an Iraqi ambassador Dr. Al-Radi did not grow up in the country she was born.  She spent most of her life growing up in India, but it was her love of the Middle East that drew her back.  After she earned her Bachelor’s of Arts from the University of Cambridge she took a post at the National Museum of Iraq.  She was one of the first of two women to become archaeologists for the museum.  The other woman just so happened to be her cousin.  Together, they discovered a cache of Nimrud Ivories, which are complexly carved ivories created between the 9^th and 7^th centuries.

 

She continued her education, earning her Master’s degree from Columbia and her Doctorate from the University of Amsterdam.  Her doctoral research focused on the Mediterranean where she studied a Bronze Age site in Cyprus.  Despite these scholarly details she returned to the Middle East in 1977, becoming employed as an advisor to the National Museum of Yemen in Sana’a. 

 

Figure 2: Fully Restored Amiriya Madrasa (Source: NYT)

 

During this employment she happened upon a discovery that would set the course of her career: the Amiriya Madrasa, an abandoned palace structure in Rada, Yemen (Figure 2).  The grand palace had been commissioned by the last sultan of the Tahirid Dynasty, with construction being completed in 1504.  The grand structure included a madrasa, religious school; mosque, a place of worship; residential areas; and a hammam, a bath with medieval shower stalls.  While the architecture of the structure was incredible it was also the home of various magnificent works of art as paintings and murals were embedded into the walls throughout the palace.  Unfortunately, when the sultan became a casualty of war the new rulers deemed the Amiriya Madrasa as a waste of money.  It was too decadent for their conservative taste, and it was abandoned.  Over the years it fell into disrepair and covered with centuries of garbage as it was the site of the town of Rada’s landfill.

 

Al-Radi refused to allow this archaeological wonder to continue to be neglected.  Observing the preservation work of Dutch archaeologists she implored their government and the government of Yemen to allow the structure to be restored and conserved.  In 1983 they both agreed, providing her the funding and means of doing so.  She employed local workers while working alongside an archaeological team of Dutch archaeologists to excavate and restore the structure.  She also rediscovered the building technique of qudad, which is a mixture of volcanic ash and slaked lime that is used to waterproof brick.  This inexpensive but effective building method was used to restore the Amiriya Madrasa to its original brilliance. 

 

Her efforts took 25 years to be completed.  In addition to conserving the structural integrity of the structure she spent 15 of those 25 years painstakingly restoring the murals within Amiriya Madrasa.  Astonishingly she completed all of this work at a fraction of what it was expected to cost.  Furthermore, by employing local laborers she was able to secure their interests and commitment to continuing to maintain the structure.  Since 2005 the Amiriya Madrasa has been open to the public, and it contains a small museum dedicated to the building’s history and restoration efforts.  In 2007 Dr. Al-Radi and her colleague received the Aga Khan Award for Architecture for their work on the Amiriya Madrasa.  She also went on to publish two books about her work.

 

In 2010 Dr. Al-Radi passed away in her home in New York City.  She is survived by her son, her second husband, and her brother.  She is fondly remembered for her commitment to restoring the Amiriya Madrasa and opening doors for women across the Middle East and world. 

 

References

Fox, M. (2010, October 14). Selma Al-Radi, Restored Historic Madrasa, Dies at 71. New York Times.

Garrett, L. G. (2023, February 24). Selma Al-Radi. Retrieved from Trowel Blazers: https://trowelblazers.com/2023/02/24/selma-al-radi/

The Telegraph. (2010, October 15). Selma al-Radi. The Telegraph.

Recent Discoveries in Chimpanzee Communication

Chimpanzees sitting together (Source: Getty Images/curioustiger)

 

Non-human primates have been widely studied for decades, and there have been several studies related to their capabilities in communicating with each other.  From these studies it is known that non-human primates can and do communicate through call systems, which are short utterances of sound that have limited meaning but are understood by all members of the species.  Several primatologists have even identified specific call’s meaning and given them a name.  For example, pant hoots demonstrate excitement, whereas threat barks show annoyance or act as a warning to leave the primate alone.  Several individuals have also successfully taught non-human primates sign language, enabling these individual primates to communicate with humans in various complex ways. 

 

Unfortunately, non-human primates have not demonstrated an ability to create their own languages, be it verbal or nonverbal.  Or so scholars thought until recently.  A study published in Communications Biology provided new evidence that chimpanzees may have developed very basic language.  The researchers analyzed close to 5000 recordings of 46 wild adult chimpanzees from Taï National Park, located in the African country of the Ivory Coast.  From listening and studying these recordings the researchers realized that these chimpanzees produced close to 400 unique vocal sequences, which in layman’s terms are words.  These were basic constructions of two calls, which made up 30% of their communications, but there were some combinations of three calls, which made up 15% of their communications. 

 

This amazing discovery is revolutionizing ideas about chimpanzees from various angles.  It shows that they are far more intelligent than previously understood, which is a high bar since chimpanzees have demonstrated profound intellectual abilities previously.  This information can also provide insights into what early human language creation may have looked like, which is something that we are unable to gain through traditional methods (since language is non-material culture and cannot be preserved in the paleoanthropological records).  This evidence is also exciting because it shows that chimpanzees may have the capacity to extend their language capabilities.  This will be realized as further study into their communication patterns continue.

 

References

Girard-Buttoz, C., Zaccarella, E., Bortolato, T., Friederici, A., & Witting, R. C. (2022, May 16). Chimpanzees produce diverse vocal sequences with ordered and recombinatorial properties. Communications Biology.

Johnson, E. (2023, September 2). Chimpanzee Sounds and Communication. Retrieved from Project Chimps: https://projectchimps.org/chimpanzee_sounds_and_communication/

Rozsa, M. (2022, May 22). Chimpanzees have their own language — and scientists just learned how they put "words" together. Salon.