Leprosy and tuberculosis in Byzantine monasteries of Judea • 199 



i 



Figure 3. Calcified pleura. (Courtesy of Israel Department of Antiquities and 

 Museums — T. Sagiv) 



tic sites is that of the paleoepidemiolo- 

 gy of leprosy and tuberculosis. Since, 

 apart from this find, tuberculosis and 

 leprosy have rarely been found in the 

 Holy Land, these patients may have 

 come from abroad or may have immi- 

 grated while incubating these diseases. 

 One wonders, therefore, what factors 

 may have operated to restrict the dis- 

 eases to these desert communities. Was 

 social and religious separation between 

 the various communities so complete as 

 to protect the members of one com- 

 munity from a disease prevalent in an- 



other? Did those who traveled great dis- 

 tances do so for spiritual reasons, or 

 had they been banished from their home 

 communities? According to Judaic 

 and Christian literary sources of that 

 period, those suffering from these dis- 

 eases were ostracized. Perhaps they 

 were welcomed by these desert com- 

 munities, thus explaining the lack of 

 such remains elsewhere in the Holy 

 Land. Further excavations and other 

 studies in the monasteries of the Judean 

 Desert may well provide answers to 

 questions such as those raised here. 



Literature cited 



Avi-Yona, M. 1963. The Bath of the Lepers 

 at Scythopolis. Israel Exploration Jour- 

 nal. 13:325-326. 



Browne, S. 1975. Some Aspects of the His- 

 tory of Leprosy: The Leprosy of Yester- 

 day. Proceedings of the Royal Society of 

 Medicine. 68. 



Dzicrzykray-Rogalski, T. 1980. Paleo- 

 pathology of the Ptolemaic Inhabitants of 

 Dakleh Oasis (Egypt). Journal of Human 

 Evolution. 9:71-74. 



Hoade, E. 1981. Guide to the Holy Land. 

 501-504. Jerusalem: Franciscan Press. 



Preuss, J. 1978. Biblical and Talmudic 

 Medicine. New York and London: San- 

 hedrin Press. 



Rosen, Z. 1982. The Healthy and the Dis- 

 eased Nose in the Bible. Proceedings of 

 the First International Symposium on 

 Medicine in the Bible. Koroth. 8:79-85. 



Smith, G.E., and W.R. Dawson. 1924. 

 Egyptian Mummies. London: Allen and 

 Unwin. 



Zias, J. 1985. Leprosy in the Byzantine 

 Monasteries of the Judean Desert. 

 Koroth. 9:242-248. 



Summary of audience discussion: The 

 lesions on the anterior surface of the patella 

 arc considered occupational (monastery 

 monk) because of their ancient and even 

 modem habit of falling to their knees, ris- 

 ing, then kneeling again and continuing this 

 process daily for hours on end. Since, dur- 

 ing kneeling, the patella does not actually 

 make contact with ihe ground, but suffers 

 substantial stress during the lowering and 

 raising of the body, the lesions may result 

 from that stress. We also found lice, not so 

 easily in the mummy's hair but very easily 

 in the hair combs. 



Zanreh Pateopathoiogy Symp. 1988 



