MEDICAL · Medical Treatments in Medieval Leprosaria. Exploring Healing Remedies through Dental Calculus Analysis

Medical Treatments in Medieval Leprosaria. Exploring Healing Remedies through Dental Calculus Analysis

The MEDICAL project has explored the medical care offered to people who experienced leprosy and lived in two leprosaria in Northern Europe during the late medieval period through dental calculus analysis. Despite the impressive spread of leprosaria in late medieval Europe, little is known about the archaeology of these establishments, and the medical treatment of patients is usually poorly detailed by contemporary archival records or medical treatises. Employing elemental analyses and polarised optical microscopy, dental calculus aims to be an essential source of the history of ancient medicine shedding new light on medicinal remedies used to cure the individuals hosted in medieval leprosaria. This research is important since has been the first and -until now- the only project to investigate medical treatments offered to individuals affected by leprosy by analysing an exceptional record for the investigation of organic and inorganic substances such as plants, minerals, and animal remains: the human dental calculus. MEDICAL aimed to 1) advance methods for interpreting ancient medicine through the study of dental calculus; 2) interpret bone changes associated with leprosy in medieval osteological collections; 3) identify ingredients employed in medicinal remedies; 4) create a comparative European overview of the medical care offered to people affected by leprosy during the medieval period. MEDICAL has established an advanced methodology for interpreting ancient medicine by developing a protocol suitable for the preparation of tartar samples and the analysis of various trace elements, including toxic heavy metals. Thanks to the application of Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) and Cold Vapour Atomic Fluorescence Spectroscopy (CV-AFS), it was possible to measure chemical element concentrations using a minimal amount of dental calculus. Analysis of bone changes associated with leprosy was carried out on the osteological collection of St Leonard in Peterborough stored at Durham University (England) and St. Thomas d’Aizier at the Centre Michel de Boüard in Caen (France). The identification of ingredients employed in medicinal remedies was achieved by applying polarised optical microscopy at the DANTE laboratory, Department of Oral and Maxillo Facial Sciences, Sapienza University of Rome, and chemical analyses at the Analytical, Environmental & Geo-Chemistry Research Unit, Department of Chemistry, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium). The results obtained in the analysed leprosaria, were cross-referenced with other anthropological data, and contrasted between the two sites of St Leonard and St Thomas thus allowing a preliminary comparative overview of the medical care offered to people affected by leprosy in medieval Europe. Due to the slowing down caused to data collection by COVID-19, some analyses are still underway. Nevertheless, some results are very promising: for instance, polarised optical microscopy analysis allowed to identify starch grains compatibles with those of ginger in some individuals from the St Leonard cemetery. In fact, ginger was mentioned by written sources among the medical ingredients employed to cure leprosy. Also, the analysis applied to detect and measure mercury concentrations proved successful in investigating the use of such a toxic metal to cure medieval individuals affected by leprosy. Preliminary results show that mercury concentrations are sensibly higher in individuals from St Leonard and St Thomas compared to the project’s benchmark population unearthed in a typical cemetery not related to a leprosy house. Applying optical microscopy and chemical analysis, we demonstrate that new and precious information can be added to this field of research. Nevertheless, more work is needed to study post-mortem contaminations and the limit in identifying the microfossils embedded in the calculus matrix.

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз