pre-contact Americas (Other Keyword)

DOCUMENT Citation Only Kirsten Bos. Åshild J. Vågene. Jane Buikstra. Anne C. Stone. Johannes Krause.

Due to its arid climate the Atacama Desert has an exceptional preservation of ancient biomolecules. In an archaeological context, this allows for genetic analyses of both past human populations and the infectious diseases they experienced. Pre-contact Peruvian cultures are among the first New World populations to show skeletal indications of tuberculosis, and recent molecular analyses have revealed that three individuals were afflicted with a rare zoonotic form of the disease acquired from...