Disease by Joyce Filer (£9.99, ISBN 0 7141 0980 0) is a gem from the
British Museum Egyptian Bookshelf series. Filer explores the abundant evidence
identifying the range of afflictions suffered in ancient Egypt and Nubia.
Tuberculosis, leprosy, achondroplasia and malaria were widespread. It is
enlightening, even chastening, to see that the congenital disorder,
achondroplastic dwarfism, suffered by one Seneb didn’t prevent him from
becoming an important court official during the Sixth Dynasty.
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