Disease Ecology of Human Treponematoses in the Southwest US/Northwest Mexico

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Human treponemal diseases (yaws, endemic syphilis, and venereal syphilis) have a long and storied past in the North American Desert West, with the earliest case dating back roughly 1,500 years. The identification of lesions associated with treponemal disease at two Cienega phase (400 BCE–50 CE) sites in southern Arizona and northern Sonora, however, move the presence of these diseases back at least 500 years. This period represents a unique stage in the development of southwestern societies, as settlement sizes began to grow and maize cultivation intensified. While the number of identifiable cases appears low, the presence of infectious disease in these growing settlements provides important information to understanding the disease ecology of these pathogens in the Desert West. The lack of identifiable infectious diseases before the Cienega phase indicates that settlements were beginning to reach population densities large enough to facilitate the spread of disease by skin-to-skin contact. ***This poster will contain illustrations of human remains.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38456.0