Parasites in Past Civilizations and Their Impact upon Health

Parasites have been infecting humans throughout our evolution. When complex societies developed, the greater population density provided new opportunities for parasites to spread. In this interdisciplinary volume, the author brings his expertise in medicine, archaeology and history to explore the contribution of parasites in causing flourishing past civilizations to falter and decline. By using cutting edge methods, Mitchell presents the evidence for parasites that infected the peoples of key ancient civilizations across the world in order to understand their impact upon those populations. This new understanding of the archaeological and historical evidence for intestinal worms, ectoparasites, and protozoa shows how different cultures were burdened by contrasting types of diseases depending upon their geographical location, endemic insects, food preferences and cultural beliefs.

• This is the first single author book for over 60 years to investigate the consequences of ancient parasites upon past societies
• Provides a solid historical understanding of how the nature of past cultures and civilizations affects human risk of disease
• Employs the clinical tool of disability adjusted life years to compare the health impacts of disease upon populations, and then quantifies and ranks the burden from parasites affecting past societie