Tumors in antiquity in East and Middle Europe 



Judyta Gladykowska-Rzeczycka 



Research on the paleopathology of tumors is problematic. 

 There is an initial problem in deciding which osseous altera- 

 tions can be called tumors. For example, should we include 

 abnormal bone growths that are the result of trauma such as 

 myositis ossificans? Are bone changes provoked by soft 

 tissue tumors which press on the bone and produce some 

 form of a depression to be considered tumors? Is a bone mass 

 contained entirely within the bone a tumor? The second prob- 

 lem is classifying neoplasms as benign or malignant. Some 

 initially benign tumors may become malignant. As in other 

 areas of paleopathology, tumor nomenclature is a problem in 

 our investigation. An additional factor is that the ancient 

 skeletal material is often in a poor state of preservation. 

 Osteolytic tumors destroy either the affected part or the 

 whole bone but evidence of this may be eliminated by post- 

 mortem diagenesis. Similarly, proliferative tumors, such as 

 osteosarcoma, are difficult to evaluate because the original 

 margins of these tumors may have been eradicated either 

 during interment or later during excavation. Diagnosis of 

 even well-preserved cases can be uncertain because bone 

 changes caused by different tumors are very similar, such as 

 the destructive lesions of multiple myeloma and those of 

 metastatic carcinoma of the breast. 



Certain modem, precise instrumental methods, including 

 histology and microradiology as well as scanning and trans- 

 mission electron microscopy, permit recognition of condi- 

 tions not diagnosable previously. However, all laboratories 

 do not yet possess such equipment so that this type of analysis 

 may not be available in the study of many paleopathological 

 specimens. Papers dealing with tumors are principally de- 

 scriptive and have a casuistic focus. As a result we have 

 information about many individual cases but we lack statisti- 

 cal data. It is true that all our descriptions and statistical data 

 will never be satisfactory, but, if well done, they can. at least, 

 make the picture of the history of diseases more realistic. If 

 we wish to get such a picture the basic data, in every case we 

 describe, must be more detailed. The basic data include num- 

 ber of all excavated skeletons, state of their preservation, 

 number of all pathological cases, and the sex, age. and archc- 

 ological provenience of each case. 



This summary review of archeological evidence for tu- 

 mors in Middle and Hast Europe is limited by the fact that the 

 basic information mentioned above is not always available. 

 On the basis of literature at my disposal 1 will try to present 

 the "state of tumors" in ancient peoples on the Baltic Coast, 

 Czechoslovakia, ancient Russia, and Poland. 



Ancient Baltics 



The main source of information about diseases of the ancient 

 Baltics is the book written by Derums (1970). He presents 

 tumors from the Mesolithic. Neolithic, Bronze, and Middle 

 ages (8000 B.C. to 18th century a.d.). About 35 cases of 

 exostoses were observed in 505 skeletons dating from the 

 Mesolithic to the ninth century a.d., but Derums suggests 

 that these are posttraumatic exostoses (p.58). Osteomas were 

 visible in skeletons dated from the fifth to the ninth century 

 A.D., but Derums described only one case — on both clavi- 

 cles of an adult male from Kriksztonic cemetery (6th- 1 2th 

 century a.d.). This exhibit is in the Museum of History and 

 Ethnography in Vilnius. Lithuania. Two more cases were 

 observed among 710 skeletons dated to the 16th- 17th cen- 

 tury A.D. One of them (No. 450) comes from Lejasviteni. in 

 which the osteoma is located on the humerus. The second 

 case is on the ulna. Both cases are currently in the Museum of 

 History of Medicine in Riga. Latvia. There are also two cases 

 of osteochondroma (exostosis solitaria). One of them is on 

 the right tibia of a young male ( 15th- 16th century a.d.); the 

 second is not described. The author noted that metastases and 

 other malignant tumors were not observed. 



Czechoslovakia 



Much information about tumors comes from Czechoslovakia 

 (Table 1 ). The skeletons examined come from 27 cemeteries 

 dating mainly from the Middle Ages (18 cemeteries), with 

 two from the Period of Wandering Nations, one from 

 Hallstatt (early Iron Age), one dated to the Eneolithic 

 (Chalcolithic), and five from the Bronze Age. Table I also 



Zagreb Pateopalholof^y Symp. 1988 



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