5 Weird But Fascinating Problems Faced By Ancient People

1They Had To Eat Fungus

The Pueblo in the southwestern US began their agricultural adventure in 400 BC. For the next 800 years, they grew and ate mainly maize, which constituted 80 percent of their calories.With a diet that included little else, maybe a bit of yucca or rarely some rabbit, the Pueblo people should have been malnourished. But they didn’t suffer the expected pellagra that comes with nutrient deficiency.[1] Their nutritional savior was the maize-infecting Ustilago maydis fungus (aka corn smut). It’s an annoyance today. But back then, maize fungus was purposely included in the diet because it boosted overall protein levels thanks to its essential amino acid profile. This huitlacoche is still eaten in Mexico today.

2They Had To Share Their Beer

Chemical analysis has just offered direct evidence that the Mesopotamians loved beer. Researchers studied various items from Khani Masi, now the Kurdish region of Iraq, and found residue from beer consumed between 1500 and 1000 BC. Mesopotamian beer was like ours, made from barley rather than rice or corn like ancient Chinese and Peruvian “beer.” But the drinking of the beverage was different. Instead of using personal vessels, the Mesopotamians drank from sizable communal containers by each dipping a long, metal-tipped straw into the brew. Mesopotamians did eventually start drinking from personal, handheld containers as social traditions grew weaker. These containers held up to 600 milliliters (20 oz) of brew, or nearly two modern-day beer bottles

3Even Ancient People Were Exposed To Lead

Even Neanderthals suffered from lead exposure, and scientists found the telltale signs in teeth from two Neanderthals from southern France. Researchers studied teeth because teeth are like tree rings. Fetuses and the very young get a new layer of enamel every day, and these layers trap chemicals that the individuals were exposed to. Researchers can also tell that the 250,000-year-old Neanderthals ingested their lead during the colder weather. Based on oxygen isotope ratios, the Neanderthals experienced harsher, more pronounced autumns and winters and their children faced malnutrition and illness.It’s likely that they ingested the lead from contaminated food or water or inhaled it from fires as they frequently populated caves with subterranean lead deposits

source http://listverse.com/2018/12/05/10-weird-but-fascinating-problems-faced-by-ancient-people/

4Everyone Got Parasites

There’s a lot to learn by studying dried old poo. Like the 700-year-old parasites recovered from stool samples acquired from 31 medieval latrines in Lubeck, Germany. Lubeck was one of the Middle Ages’ most bustling ports, and its people’s intestines were riddled with tapeworms and roundworms thanks to a diet heavy in improperly cooked freshwater fish.The poo also shows a shift in parasites, revealing that residents switched to a more meat-centric diet around the year 1300. The change might have been due to the concurrent uptick in leather-making and butchery, two industries that polluted the freshwater ecosystem

5They Had Holes Drilled Through Their Skull

The ancient Chinese knew a lot about disease and described numerous ailments and their pathologies on pieces of bone or tortoise shells. They even knew how to perform craniotomies more than 3,000 years ago.[5] Archaeologists at the Ruins of Yin found two skulls with drill holes. One of the skulls belonged to a 10-year-old boy and featured a circular, 1-centimeter-wide (0.4 in) perforation. The bone showed signs of healing, so the boy survived as a result or in spite of the surgery. The operation was likely performed with bone needles, four of which were discovered at the ruins. It’s not the first time that ancient Chinese skulls have been found with perforations, as 13 such skulls, bearing multiple holes, were previously unearthed at ruins in Xinjiang.