
Palaeopathology: The Study of Disease in the Past
Author(s) -
Pedro Fernández
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
pathobiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.941
H-Index - 53
eISSN - 1423-0291
pISSN - 1015-2008
DOI - 10.1159/000335165
Subject(s) - paleopathology , pathology , human disease , disease , biology , medicine
Palaeopathology studies ancient human or animal remains from a pathological point of view, for which techniques and tools such as inspection and light and electron microscopy after adequate rehydration, immunohistochemistry and molecular biology are used. Despite the degradation of tissues, partial preservation of their structure and content after a natural or artificial mummification process often allows the extraction of valuable biological data, which sometimes provides interesting historical information.