Evidencia de treponematosis en lacueva de la candelaria, coahuila, con énfasis en un bulto mortuorio infantil

Abstract

Treponemal infection was found in the skeletal population recovered from the Candelaria, Coahuila cave. In this study we tried to make the differential diagnosis of the three syndromes that involves the bone tissue. The population analysis was done as proposed by Rothschild and Rothschild (1994) and Herskowitz et al. (1994). The study of the different population patterns was made in order to establish what kind of treponematosis was present. Among this collection there is a unique infant burial bundle studied radiologically. This cave belongs to the cultural area of the irritila o laguneros, a nomadic group with, fishing, gathering and, hunting way of life in a semidesertic environment. The chronology of this site was determinate with C 14 and it fluctuates from 1100 to 1300 AD. The skeletal remains of this cave consist mainly of an ossuary and two infant mortuary bundles. One of them does not show any kind of lesions or morphological alterations. From the different bones recovered from the cave we studied: 107 skulls, 143 tibiae, 153 femurs and 85 fibulae and the infant skeleton of the bundle. There are no hands and feet bones. There is paleopathologic evidence of endemic treponematosis in different parts of Mesoamerica (Mansilla and Pijoan 1998a and 1998b). In this case the pattern of the lesions of the bones and skeleton of the bundle strongly suggest Yaws as the treponematosis syndrome present in this population. © 2007 Universidad de Tarapacá Facultad de Ciencias Sociales Administrativas y Económicas Departamento de Antropología.