Precolumbian Tuberculosis in the Chachapoya from the Northeastern Peruvian Andes

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The application of molecular methods to paleopathology has revealed a strain of tuberculosis (TB) closely related to a variety currently adapted to seals and sea lions that caused human infection in the western Andes of prehispanic South America. Our understanding of ancient TB distribution in terms of geography and genetic diversity is, however, limited since genome-level evaluations have thus far been restricted to only a small number of individuals of the western Andean region. Here we present a reconstructed ancient TB genome from the eastern Andean slopes recovered from the Chachapoya funerary site Diablo Huasi, located in Amazonas, Peru. Because this skeleton displayed pathological changes that were non-specific in lesion distribution and morphology, we employed a broad pathogen screening method with limited ascertainment bias. TB was the only pathogen detected, and its preservation permitted the subsequent reconstruction of a 10-fold TB genome. Our phylogenetic analysis reveals that the Diablo Huasi TB strain is closely related to those from the neighboring ancient coastal and highland populations. Our results demonstrate the utility of molecular methods for paleopathological analyses and expand the known geographic range of ancient TB strains thus providing insight into their local ecology and evolution.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• SAA 2021: General Sessions

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 33605