Scientific Studies of Our Past

My paper, "Assessing the physical and pathological traits of human skeletal remains from cemetery localities at the Rakhigarhi site of the Harappan Civilization" is published in Anthropological Science.

The Rakhigarhi site is the location of the ruins of an ancient megacity of the Harappan civilization and had not previously been investigated thoroughly. We tried to examine the physical and pathological traits of human skeletons (n = 37) from the cemetery at the site. In our study, a cranial index was calculated from one male skull (dolichocranic; index value = 65.78). The mean statures estimated by long bone length were 175.8 cm (male) and 166.1 cm (female). The indices of femoral diaphyseal shape were 79.8 (males) and 90.31 (females) for the platymeric index; and 113.78 (males) and 112.74 (female) for the pilasteric index. The dental health of the subjects appeared to be good as the overall prevalence of oral pathologies (caries and antemortem tooth loss) was generally lo…

Institute of Forensic Science, Seoul National University College of Medicine and Korean Academy of Paleopathology and Osteoarchaeology (KAPO) proudly invite you to “International Symposium: Current Trends in Paleoparasitology.”
Paleoparasitological research has advanced beyond the earliest stages of development, entering into a new stage to obtain information about our ancestors’ parasitic infections all over the world, using a variety of recently developed research techniques. This symposium will be an important opportunity to review the research achievements of paleoparasitology so far and to discuss current trends and future prospects in paleoparasitology with experts and specialists in the field.

For the details of the symposium, please click below:

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The Editorial Board of the book project " Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology" has accepted our manuscript »Mummy Studies« (together with Bianucci, R., Piombino-Mascali, D.)

Our new paper on "Lumbosacral Defects in a 16th–18th-Century Joseon Dynasty Skeletal Series from Korea" in BioMed Res Int.

Paleopathological evidence for congenital and degenerative disorders of the lumbosacral vertebrae is informative about ancient individual lifeways and physical conditions. However, very few studies have focused on the paleopathology of the lumbosacral vertebrae in ancient skeletal series from East Asia. One reason for the lack of studies is that skeletal samples from East Asia are typically insufficient in size to represent populations for comparative studies within the continent. Here, we present the first comprehensive analysis of lumbosacral defects in an East Asian human skeletal sample, examining occurrences of spina bifida occulta (SBO), lumbosacral transitional vertebrae (LSTV), and spondylolysis in remains from Joseon tombs dating to the 16–18th centuries in Korea. In this study, we present an alternative methodology for understanding activities …

Our paper is newly published in Biomed Res International-. 
Paleopathological Considerations on Malaria Infection in Korea before the 20th Century
Shin DH1, Seo M2, Hong JH1, Lee E3.
Malaria, one of the deadliest diseases in human history, still infects many people worldwide. Among the species of the genus Plasmodium, P. vivax is commonly found in temperate-zone countries including South Korea. In this article, we first review the history of malarial infection in Korea by means of studies on Joseon documents and the related scientific data on the evolutionary history of P. vivax in Asia. According to the historical records, malarial infection was not unusual in pre-20th-century Korean society. We also found that certain behaviors of the Joseon people might have affected the host-vector-pathogen relationship, which could explain why malarial infection prevalence was so high in Korea at that time. In our review of genetic studies on P. vivax, we identified substantial geographic differen…

Our paper is published in Anthropological Science-.

Single-nucleotide polymorphism analyses on ABCC11, EDAR, FGFR2, and ABO genotypes of mummified people of the Joseon Dynasty, South Korea

CHANG SEOK OH, DONG HOON SHIN, JONG HA HONG, SOONG DEOK LEE, EUNJU LEE

Although previous studies have demonstrated successful single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping of modern samples, the potential applicability of this methodology to ancient human specimens has not been confirmed. With regard in particular to the SNPs in the ABCC11, EDAR, FGFR2, and ABO genes, all of which are commonly analyzed in biomedical research, only a relatively limited number of papers on ancient specimens are currently available. We thus studied the SNP genotypes in the ABCC11, EDAR, FGFR2, and ABO genes of mummies from the Joseon Dynasty of Korea. Those SNP genotypes in brain samples (n = 5) were determined using multiplex single-base extension (SBE) primers in polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analyses of each gen…