A new research into the preserved skeletons of ancient Egyptian scribes has found that their bones contain unique marks of damage due to arthritis and other factors.
Knewz.com has learned that the skeletons showed the most amount of wear and tear in their hands, legs, jaws, necks, and shoulders.
While being a scribe was not a physically demanding activity, the latest research has shown that the job took its toll on the body over time.
University and museum researchers from the Czech Republic examined the skeletons of 69 men buried at the necropolis in Abusir, Egypt, dating from 2700 B.C. to 2180 B.C.
The items found in the tombs, including paintings, tools, and statues, suggested that around 30 of the men buried in the tombs were employed as scribes during their lifetime.
"The term 'scribes' in relation to ancient Egypt in the third millennium BC covers men who held a wide range of administrative posts or functions. These individuals enjoyed a privileged position in society at that time, since only 1% of the population would have been literate," the research, published in the journal Nature, noted.
"In recent years, scholars have directed their research towards various aspects associated with scribes, e.g., with their titles, scribal statues, iconography in wall decoration, writing materials, writing systems and analyses of single documents."
"However, thorough research into the skeletal remains of these ancient Egyptian scribes, focusing on scribal activities and their possible influence on the development of activity-related skeletal changes, has been missing or limited to single case studies," the paper added.
"To date, no analogous study has been published that comprehensively evaluates the occupational risk factors on the entire skeleton, while at the same time being based on a homogenous and relatively large sample of individuals whose employment was related to scribal activity."
Through the analysis conducted by the Czech researchers, it was found that scribes were more susceptible to degenerative changes to their bones, especially in their upper bodies, as compared to their family members or other high-ranking officials in ancient Egypt.
"For instance, scribes chewed rushes to make brushes for writing. That left the men with arthritis in the temporomandibular joints (TMJ) of their jaws, the researchers found. About 16 percent to 38 percent of people today are estimated to have TMJ arthritis," the outlet Science News explained.
"A comparable 30 percent of the ancient non-scribes also had arthritis in their jaws, but in scribes, the rate was more than double at 64 percent. The work left similar wear-and-tear in particular spots from head to toe."
Given that ancient Egyptian scribes had to mostly work in a cross-legged position, or hunched over on papyrus documents, some of the most notable bone damage has been found in their ankles, knees, and pelvic bones.
"Our research reveals that remaining in a cross-legged sitting or kneeling position for extended periods, and the repetitive tasks related to writing and the adjusting of the rush pens during scribal activity, caused the extreme overloading of the jaw, neck, and shoulder regions," the paper mentioned.
However, researchers have also pointed out that these damage markers might not have been specific to scribes, as kneeling and squatting were very common for everyone at the time, per Science News.
The research also mentioned that holding their pens and writing for prolonged periods caused osteoarthritis in the right hand of the ancient Egyptian scribes, specifically in the metacarpal bones, or the bones that precede the fingers.
"A significantly higher occurrence of [osteoarthritis] on the proximal articular surface of the right first metacarpal bone was detected among scribes. This could be related to specific thumb motions, their frequency and duration, and specific thumb positions, which may constitute long-term low-level mechanical stresses, resulting in degenerative changes in the articular cartilage and initiating [osteoarthritis]," the research paper noted.
"However, further research focusing on other musculoskeletal markers (e.g., entheseal changes) in the wrist and hand will be needed, following some of the current method."
Researchers also found similar signs of stress on the right shoulders of the skeletons, possibly from creating hieroglyphics.
