Before Christopher Columbus sailed across the pond to the Americas, no European had ever seen a peanut or a llama. It has also been hypothesized that no citizen of the Old World had ever contracted syphilis until the great explorer transported it back to Europe in his pants. However, new evidence has shattered this long-standing theory, suggesting that the disease may well have existed on the continent prior to 1492.
The notion that Columbus brought syphilis to Europe has always been based on speculation rather than evidence. For instance, the earliest recorded outbreak of the disease occurred among the soldiers of Charles VIII of France’s army in 1495, suspiciously close to Columbus’s return from America. This caused a number of people to jump to conclusions about where the affliction came from – conclusions which had, until now, never been disproved. In that sense, it was essentially a case of guilty until proven innocent.
A number of attempts to dispel the rumors and clear Columbus’s name have been made in recent times, yet none have been able to confirm a case of syphilis that pre-dated his return from America. However, a new report in the Journal of Biological and Clinical Anthropology now appears to have done just that, by unearthing the remains of a syphilis sufferer who lived in the 14th century. Found in an ancient cemetery in St. Pölten, Austria, the specimen was found to display a number of dental deformities that are typically caused by congenital, or present from birth, syphilis.
Though the condition is most commonly thought of as a sexually transmitted illness, it can also be passed from mother to baby during pregnancy, and at birth. When the former occurs, the biological response of the fetus to the presence of the pathogen causes a delay to the development of teeth, resulting in a number of distinctive characteristics. These include fang-like canines, barrel-shaped incisors called Hutchinson’s incisors, and dome-shaped molars. That all of these were observed in the Austrian skeleton, which was radiocarbon dated to confirm its antiquity, suggests that syphilis did in fact exist in central Europe before Columbus’s voyage to the New World.
These days, syphilis can be treated with antibiotics if caught during its early stages, although in previous times it would have been a deadly condition. Caused by the Treponema pallidum bacterium, its symptoms typically occur in three stages, the first of which involves the appearance of highly infectious sores on the genitals. This is often followed by a dormant phase, during which the carrier remains infected but may not experience any symptoms. Eventually, the disease enters its final stage, when a number of nasty consequences may be experienced – including blindness, paralysis or death.
While the new finding represents the first ever pre-Columbian case of syphilis in Europe, scientists are yet to discover a pre-Columbian peanut or llama on the continent.
