Associate Professor and Chair of Anthropology Dr. Mindy Pitre is part of team that discovered one of the world’s earliest cases of rheumatoid arthritis in ancient Egypt. Her paper “A case of rheumatoid arthritis in a Nubian woman from the site of Sheikh Mohamed, near Aswan, Egypt was recently published in the International Journal of Paleopathology. The discovery has been featured in Live Science (https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/ancient-egyptians/3500-year-old-burial-of-nubian-woman-reveals-1-of-worlds-earliest-known-cases-of-rheumatoid-arthritis) and by Archaeology News.
Pitre and her team’s discovery of the incomplete skeletal remains of a woman from 1800-1500 B.C. with rheumatoid arthritis was found in Aswan. Identified by erosive lesions, the condition affected her joints, making daily activities difficult. This discovery challenges previous beliefs about the existence of rheumatoid arthritis in ancient Egypt.
Pitre is a bioarcheologist whose research focuses on the study of human skeletal remains from archaeological sites and the complex relationship between biology and culture in the past. In particular, she is interested in understanding the presence and experience of disease and illness in antiquity. She has excavated and studied human skeletons in Canada, the United Kingdom, Egypt, the Sudan, and Syria.