Archaeoparasitology
study of parasites in archaeological contexts
Archaeoparasitology, a multi-disciplinary field within paleopathology, is the study of parasites in archaeological contexts. It includes studies of the protozoan and metazoan parasites of humans in the past, as well as parasites which may have affected past human societies, such as those infesting domesticated animals.
Reinhard suggested that the term "archaeoparasitology" be applied to "... all parasitological remains excavated from archaeological contexts ... derived from human activity" and that "the term 'paleoparasitology' be applied to studies of nonhuman, paleontological material." (p. 233) Paleoparasitology includes all studies of ancient parasites outside of archaeological contexts, such as those found in amber, and even dinosaur parasites.
The first archaeoparasitology report described calcified eggs of Bilharzia haematobia (now Schistosoma haematobium) from the kidneys of an ancient Egyptian mummy. Since then, many fundamental archaeological questions have been answered by integrating our knowledge of the hosts, life cycles and basic biology of parasites, with the archaeological, anthropological and historical contexts in which they are found.
Parasitology basics
Parasites are organisms which live in close association with another organism, called the host, in which the parasite benefits from the association, to the detriment of the host. Many other kinds of associations may exist between two closely allied organisms, such as commensalism or mutualism.
“Archaeoparasitology” enters the record as study of parasites in archaeological contexts. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Archaeoparasitology, study and parasites can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “Archaeoparasitology” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.