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Miguel Botella Lopez
Two skulls excavated from the Qubbet el-Hawa necropolis in Egypt.
By Stephanie Pappas
LiveScience
Even the best-off ancient Egyptians suffered from malnutrition and preventable disease, a new analysis of mummies and skeletons finds.
The bodies come from the Qubbet el-Hawa necropolis, which is near the modern city of Aswan in southern Egypt. Constructed in the 12th dynasty (between 1939 B.C. and 1760 B.C.) and reused in later periods, the necropolis contains remains of people from across the social spectrum.
An analysis of more than 200 of these bodies, which has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal, finds that wealth did not necessarily buy health in ancient Egypt.
"Although the cultural level of the age was extraordinary, the anthropological analysis of the human remains reveals the population in general, and the governors — the highest social class — lived in conditions in which their health was very precarious, on the edge of survival," study researcher Miquel Botella Lopez of the University of Granada said in a statement.
Life expectancy was only about 30 years, the researchers found, thanks to a high infant mortality rate, malnutrition and gastrointestinal infections caused by drinking polluted Nile waters. A great many of the dead in the necropolis were between 17 and 25 years old, the researchers announced Wednesday.
Follow Stephanie Pappas @sipappas. Follow LiveScience on Twitter @livescience, Facebook or Google+. Original article on LiveScience.com.
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piece of crap article
It does not surprise me that life expectancy was short. A similar article stated life expectancy of only 25 years for the Roman period, why would an even more primitive era be any different? For Eygpt your basically talking advanced stone age/early iron age just a tad more advanced than central American tribes because of the use of metals. It is mind staggering to think Empires by teen-agers: married by 13, dead of old age at 25 on the average.
This article about life expectancy is misleading. Thirty is the AVERAGE. Many Egyptian royals lived into their 70s and even 80s, and had lavish jubilee celebrations. (Jubilees being the 30-year mark of their reign.)
Ancient Greeks and Romans also lived well into their elder years, as evidenced by the famous philosophers, historians (Pliny the Elder - hello?), and rulers of the time (Cleopatra was no spring chicken).
Even "Otzi the Iceman" was about 45 when he was (probably) murdered, and there's plentiful evidence that "cavemen/women" cared for their elder family members.