title: Pathological variations in mummified feet between two near-distance/long-time populations in Ancient Egypt.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  In ancient populations, a significant quantity of foot pathology was related either to the type of footwear they used or the underlying terrain they walked on. Our study was carried out to analyze these parameters with the foot pathologies the mummies presented.
  
  
  METHODS
  Between 2006 and 2012, more than 650 individuals were recovered from the Sharuna and Qarara necropolis (Middle Egypt) dating from the VIth Dynasty of the first Ptolemaic Period to the second Coptic Period. From among them, a total of 73 mummified feet (41 from Sharuna and 32 from Qarara) were studied. We took into account the differences existing between both sites in location (15 km apart) and in time (2500 years apart).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Almost all feet from Sharuna were wrapped and impregnated with a preservative substance (anthropological mummification), while the mummification process in Qarara was quite natural. Pathologies were found in 36 of the 73 ft (20 from Sharuna and 16 from Qarara). The differences in foot pathologies between the two sites were analysed.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The foot pathologies we found in both necropolises have led us to hypothesise that the majority of the diachronic differences could be related more to progressive changes in the type of the terrain brought out through droughts, than the changes in footwear habits.
authors.affiliation: Hospital Universitari del SagratCor, Barcelona, Spain ; Serv. C.O.T. Hosp., Sagrat Cor/Unidad Docente U.B., Viladomat 288, 08029 Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Albert
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Isidro
authors.affiliation: Äegyptolisches Institut, Eberhart-Karls University, Tübingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Beatrice
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Huber
authors.affiliation: Hospital Universitari Sagrat Cor, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Aamer
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Malik
authors.affiliation: Department Biologia Animal, Biologia Vegetal i Ecologia, Unitat d'Antropologia Biològica Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra - Cerdanyola del Valles, Spain.
authors.forename: Assumpció
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Malgosa
keywords: Ancient pathologies; Egypt; Mummies; Shoes