Archaeologica.org

get to see this on Saturday.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7209472.stm

Timewatch: The Pharaoh's Lost City is on BBC Two on Saturday, 26 January at 2010 GMT

These were the first bones clearly identifiable as the workers who lived in the city; and they reveal the terrible price they paid to fulfil the Pharaoh's dream.

"The bones reveal a darker side to life, a striking reversal of the image that Akhenaten promoted, of an escape to sunlight and nature" says Professor Barry Kemp who is leading the excavations.

Painted murals found in the tombs of high officials from the time show offering-tables piled high with food. But the bones of the ordinary people who lived in the city reveal a different picture.

"The skeletons that we see are certainly not participating in that form of life," says Professor Jerry Rose, of the University of Arkansas, US, whose anthropological team has been analysing the Amarna bones.

"Food is not abundant and certainly food is not of high nutritional quality. This is not the city of being-taken-care-of."

Someone take notes.

Minimalist wrote:get to see this on Saturday.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7209472.stm

Timewatch: The Pharaoh's Lost City is on BBC Two on Saturday, 26 January at 2010 GMT

These were the first bones clearly identifiable as the workers who lived in the city; and they reveal the terrible price they paid to fulfil the Pharaoh's dream.

"The bones reveal a darker side to life, a striking reversal of the image that Akhenaten promoted, of an escape to sunlight and nature" says Professor Barry Kemp who is leading the excavations.

Painted murals found in the tombs of high officials from the time show offering-tables piled high with food. But the bones of the ordinary people who lived in the city reveal a different picture.

"The skeletons that we see are certainly not participating in that form of life," says Professor Jerry Rose, of the University of Arkansas, US, whose anthropological team has been analysing the Amarna bones.

"Food is not abundant and certainly food is not of high nutritional quality. This is not the city of being-taken-care-of."

Someone take notes.

Please, please take notes!

I've check my digital BBC here in Southern California and all I have are Doctor Who re-runs and Gordon Ramsay. (Although I do like Ramsay).

Gordon Ramsey! Now you're f****** talking!

All - be sure to watch the short film clips provided in this article. There are 3 of them.

This is definitely not the same "worker" that built the pyramids. Further study may show whether or not there was a disease present or if the workers were simply mistreated. Bone study will determine more about their nutrition.

OK - I'll watch it tonight and report back later.

Beagle wrote:All - be sure to watch the short film clips provided in this article. There are 3 of them.

This is definitely not the same "worker" that built the pyramids. Further study may show whether or not there was a disease present or if the workers were simply mistreated. Bone study will determine more about their nutrition.

I'm just wondering what the results would be if they studied the skeletons of the Chinese workers who built the transcontinental railroads in the 1850's.

It was "good to be the king," "not too shabby to be one of the nobles" but life "pretty much sucked" to be anyone else!

Guys - I think you can access the BBC iPlayer. It is a way of seeing stuff you've missed, but I don't see why it wouldn't work as well for you as for us.

Programmes are usually accessible the day after they've been shown.

Here's the link to page where you can access the iPlayer.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/

Ishtar wrote:Guys - I think you can access the BBC iPlayer. It is a way of seeing stuff you've missed, but I don't see why it wouldn't work as well for you as for us.

Programmes are usually accessible the day after they've been shown.

Here's the link to page where you can access the iPlayer.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/

Excellent! Thanks, Ishtar!

Not just Chinese labourers though. Queen Victoria was under 5ft tall and a vist to the Victoria and Albert Museum's clothing section will rapidly demonstrate that an adult in this country 150 yrs ago was about 5ft-5ft 2in and took a size four shoe.
Most teenagers now are taller than that, genes or diet?

Most teenagers now are taller than that, genes or diet?

The impact of bovine growth hormone from dairy milk in the States is indistinguishable from human growth hormone. We feed that to our children during developmental years in addition to Big Macs, Whoppers, etc. The current day diet makes children taller, fatter and internally toxic.

Not to say the ancients didn't have their problems such as rampant lead poisoning in large Roman cities, etc. Upon reflection I believe there must be high levels of lead in the drinking water where I work -- it explains much of the dumbass behavior I observe.

it explains much of the dumbass behavior I observe.

Regretably Cog most people are dumb! If brains were needed to breath most people would be bright blue!
What offends me most is that they seem today to put a premium on being dumb, certainly if you look at our present government you need look no further, most suffer from an acute 'foot in mouth' syndrome.

OK, I've watched the programme and here is a short summary of the main points.

I took eight A4 pages of notes, but most of it is about the story of Akhenaton and the history and archaeology of the region which you probably already know. The new angle is this:

What the archaeos and physical anthropologist (Jerry Rose) found in the skeletons was a huge proportion of teenagers with spina bifida, or vertebraic cavities, plus 60 per cent had anaemia (adults 18-20 per cent). They said that spina bifida is genetic, but can also be caused by parasites or trauma, such as very hard work.

They showed these 100lb chunks of limestone used for the building of the palaces, temples and mansions of this enormous city by contemporary standards, 6 x 3 miles in diameter with 30-50,000 inhabitants.

The limestone blocks were chiselled out of an underground limestone quarry/cavern owned by Queen Nefertiti’s mother. Then they had to be dragged one-and-a-half-miles to the city in 40 degree heat.

The archaeos felt that the depictions of an abundant lifestyle shown in the pictures found on the walls of the courtiers’ mansions, with tables groaning with produce, was not the life of the workers. (So what else is new?) The workers subsisted on a diet of bread, onions, beans and beer, while the rich feasted on beef and geese.

The most extraordinary thing, and would have also been considered highly unusual at the time, was the traces found of 1800 offering tables to the god Atum which, according to paintings found, were all piled high with food.

The documentary makers have reached the conclusion that all this food was left to rot in the sun while the poor went hungry, but there was no proof of that. It’s quite likely that the food was redistributed as is done with offertory food to the gods in India.

They’re also still researching the idea that these illnesses could have been the result of a viral epidemic, especially as the city was abandoned so quickly and after only 20 years on habitation.

There was quite a lot on the archaeological ruins, and if you want to know more about that, please do ask me.

What the archaeos and physical anthropologist (Jerry Rose) found in the skeletons was a huge proportion of teenagers with spina bifida, or vertebraic cavities, plus 60 per cent had anaemia (adults 18-20 per cent). They said that spina bifida is genetic, but can also be caused by parasites or trauma, such as very hard work.

Thanks for this Ishtar. Spina Bifida is strongly linked to folic acid deficiency in the mother at the time of conceprtion. Physicians in this country are urging women who are planning on , or may get, pregnant to take extra folic acid. Also, if the people are deficient in folic acid they are almost certainly deficient in the other B vitamins, leading to anemia and a host of other illnesses.

I believe now that these people suffered from an improper diet. Thanks again.

Spina Bifida is a birth defect Beag so the the mother's diet etc would have caused the problem, but most of the builders, based on the time scale given for the building work, would have been born elsewhere IMO.
If so why has the incidence of SB not shown up elsewhere in Egypt?

The SB was present in the children of the workers. Nobody with SB would be able to work. So...the workers may have been healthy before they were moved to Amarna, a remote location, but became malnourished once there. It sounds like a concentration camp.