If it weren't for the careful eyes of an excavator, working at an ancient underground tomb in Egypt, archaeologists may never have found it: a lonely tooth, nestled in the curve of a worn-down pelvis.

At first, site supervisor and archaeologist Melinda King Wetzel thought she was looking at a fetus from the time of the Egyptian pharaohs.

But when she showed the grave to the bioarchaeological director of the site, Gretchen Dabbs, the discovery turned out to be even rarer in nature.

Along with another site supervisor, Anna Stevens, Wetzel and Dabbs claim to have found the oldest evidence of a mature ovarian teratoma, or germ cell tumor.

…

Teratomas are rare types of germ cell tumors that are usually benign, although they can come with symptoms such as abdominal pain or infertility.

They are very rarely found in archaeology. In fact, this is only the fifth case of its kind to be uncovered by archaeologists and the only one from Egypt.

  • @Kyrgizion
    4•1 year ago

    I dunno, I find it strangely comforting to know it seems to be a fluke of nature rather than something we’d done to ourselves through pollution or whatnot.