La salud y la enfermedad en las poblaciones del pasado a través de la paleoparasitología

Resumo

Palaeoparasitology, understood as the study of parasites from archaeological and palaeontological materials, makes a novel contribution to the study of the past. From the bioarchaeological point of view, palaeoparasitology is a first-rate tool for inferring the hygienic-sanitary conditions of past populations, agricultural and farming activities, the presence and/or consumption of domestic and peridomestic animals, as well as migratory routes. At the same time, it provides transversal knowledge in aspects as diverse as bone pathologies, stable isotopes, archaeozoology and palaeoclimate, among others. Despite its proven interest, palaeoparasitological studies have not enjoyed continuity in our country, which has led to the absence of knowledge in certain chronologies, or the knowledge of a certain cultural moment from just one archaeological site. This Doctoral Thesis contributes to the knowledge of parasitosis in prehistoric societies in the Iberian Peninsula, by means of a cross-cultural and multichronological approach to ancient parasites. In this way, sediment from skeletal remains has been studied, in which parasites from the Roman and Late Antique periods in Spain have been found for the first time. At the same time, a study of osteoarchaeological remains has been carried out, derived from the presence of Echinococcus granulosus in populations belonging to the medieval kingdom of Granada, being the first evidence of this parasite in European medieval Islamic populations