News

University hosts major conference on paleopathology

(6 August 2004)

The study of ancient skeletal remains of 12th century Crusaders, the dissection of Egyptian mummies and the examination of burial sites of the Incas and other past civilisations can tell the scientists and doctors of today a great deal about the history of disease.

Some of the world's leading experts on the evolution and history of infectious diseases will be attending a major conference at the University of Durham next week (August 10th-14th).

The conference is hosted by the Department of Archaeology, and medieval Durham Castle is the setting for the Plenary lecture which starts off the 15th. Paleopathology Association's European Meeting. 150 delegates from a variety of fields including physical anthropologists, historians, archaeologists and medical personnel will be gathering from across Europe and North America to explore current topics and to share latest research.

The Paleopathology Association was founded in 1973 and has the motto : Mortui Viventes Docent (The Dead Teach the Living) and meets annually in North America, with a biennial meeting in Europe.

This is the first time the European meeting has been held in the University of Durham. Professor Charlotte Roberts of the Department of Archaeology is the Vice-President of the Association which has strong links with the North of England through its co-founder the late Dr Aidan Cockburn who was born in North Shields.

The main lecture in the opening plenary session will be delivered in the Great Hall of Durham Castle on TUESDAY 10th August at 7.30 p.m. by Dr. Keith Manchester of the University of Bradford. His topic will be 'The Ageing Process'.

Among the subjects in the other sessions at the conference will be the Health of Medieval York, studies of 10-11th century Hungarian populations and male health from the Iron Age to the Romano-British period in England. Other studies will look at the history of dental disease, trauma caused by conflict and violence in medieval Europe, and public health issues in ancient Greece.

Three daughters of the late Dr. Aidan Cockburn, and his wife Eve who died in December 2003, will be attending the Cockburn Memorial Symposium on Friday 13th August 2004.

Media enquiries to : Tom Fennelly, Public Relations Officer, University of Durham, tel : 0191 334 6078 or e-mail : t.p.fennelly@durham.ac.uk

For further details about the Paleopathology Association meeting visit web site dur.ac.uk/ppa2004.conference or contact Professor Charlotte Roberts, Department of Archaeology, University of Durham, tel :0191 334 41154 or 01388 763039 (home) or e-mail : c.a.roberts@durham.ac.uk

Notes to Editors :

1. The Paleopathology Association The Paleopathology Association was founded in 1973 by U.S. and Canadian scientists, and has the motto Mortui viventes docent (the dead teach the living). Today the Association has several hundred members around the world from a variety of fields including physical anthropologists, historians, archaeologists, and medical personnel. Since its conception in 1973, the Paleopathology Association has grown to an international membership over 300 members. The Paleopathology Newsletter is published quarterly and helps keep members abreast of developments in the field. Each year the Association holds an annual meeting in North America and a biennial meeting is also held in Europe. These meetings focus on dissemination of information, skill building and collegiality. Previous venues for the European meetings are as follows: 1976 - London, England;1978 - Turin, Italy ;1980 �¢- Caen, France ;1982 - Middelberg/Antwerpen, Belgium ;1984 - Siena, Italy ;1986 - Madrid, Spain;1988 - Lyon, France ;1990 - Cambridge, England ;1992 Barcelona,Spain ;1994 - Gottingen, Germany ;1996 - Maastricht, The Netherlands ;1998 - Prague and Pilsen, Czech Republic ;2000 - Chieti, Italy ;2002 - Coimbra, Portugal ;2004 - The Durham Meeting

2. Dr Keith Manchester Dr Keith Manchester is a pioneer in the study of palaeopathology in Britain and he is best known for his research into the evolution and palaeoepidemiology of leprosy and tuberculosis in antiquity. Originally a general practitioner with a strong interest in archaeology and a long-standing member of the Paleopathology Association, he turned his attention to the study of disease in human remains from British archaeological sites in the 1970s. In 1978, he started teaching palaeopathology in the Department of Archaeological Sciences, University of Bradford, and by 1983 had published the first edition of the Archaeology of Disease, now in its 2nd edition and shortly to go into a 3rd. In 1983 whilst teaching at Bradford, he was awarded a research grant from the Science and Engineering Research Council to start research into the antiquity of the mycobacterial diseases in Britain. This was soon followed by a grant from the Wellcome Trust.
In addition to his more than full commitment to being a physician in Bradford, he put a considerable amount of his spare time into palaeopathological teaching and research, and contributed enthusiastically to the development of palaeopathology as a discipline in Britain. His numerous publications have had a considerable impact on palaeopathology globally, and many a student can attest to his brilliance both as an oral and written communicator. He is now 'retired' from being a physician and researcher in palaeopathology.

3. Dr Aidan Cockburn May 30th 1912- September 18th 1981 Born on the 30th of May, 1912 at North Shields in northern England. His father's family were seafarers (his father was killed at sea in 1918, and his grandfather had been round the world three times); his mother's family were country folk from the hills of Northumberland. He received his two medical degrees in 1935 and 1937 from the University of Durham, the second in internal medicine, and in 1940 earned a Diploma in Public Health at the Royal Institute of Hygiene and Public Health. He was active in civil defence during the Battle of Britain and served with the R.A.M.C. for five years in West Africa, Egypt and Palestine.
After the war came a two-year stint at the London Zoo, where he was Assistant Superintendent in charge of the animals. It was this study of animal diseases, as well as his long term work as a public health doctor, that aroused his interest in the evolution and history of disease. A year in northern Canada was followed by six years (1948 - 54) with the U.S.P.H.S.
As Chief of the Encephalitis Investigations Unit. It was during this time that he developed the hypotheses and formulae expressed in his books, relating density and size of the hearth population to the maintenance and recurrence of different epidemic diseases. Here, and in the two years that followed in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, he became interested in the practical possibility of eradicating measles and other epidemic viruses.
From 1956 to 1960, he was first W.H.O. Advisor to the Government of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and then with I.C.A. in East Pakistan (Bangladesh), where he dealt with huge epidemics of smallpox and cholera. In 1960 he returned to the U.S. (he had become a citizen in 1954) as N.I.H. Visiting Fellow at Johns Hopkins University. He then moved to Cincinnati (1961 - 66) as Assistant Commissioner of Health, and from there to Detroit, where he was Medical-Dental Director of the Mayor's Committee for Human Resources Development.
Through his two books on epidemic disease, Aidan got to know many basic scientists, including physical anthropologists, and also did demographic-epidemiologic field work in Tlaxcala, Mexico. He now started a campaign tto see the much wider scope and more precise diagnoses possible with mummy tissues. In 1971 he started both the dissection of mummies (at the Detroit Institute of Arts) and the pursuit of mummies in Egypt. Having become a Research Associate of the Smithsonian Institutions Department of Anthropology, he made a flying visit to Egypt, was frustrated by the change of government and turned his enthusiastic attention to the dissection of mummies already in the U.S.
The physical results of this work, especially were impressive, and culminated in the publication of his third book, Mummies, Disease and Ancient Cultures (1980), jointly edited with Eve. Eve shared his far-travelling life, developing a syndicated column on health that ran in 55 newspapers in the Far East, and editing a magazine for women in E. Pakistan.
Aidan continued to do modern epidemiology and demography, working in the U.S. and decided to hunt tissues and other organic remains of well-dated Egyptians. In the summer of 1971 he became a Research Associate in the Department of Anthropology of the Smithsonian Institution. He made a quick exploratory trip to Egypt in September/October 1971. He also started dissection of mummies in the United States. He had now become a confirmed amateur paleopathologist. In 1973 he and Eve started the Paleopathology Association, with support from us and from pathologists, physiologists, orthopedists, and other medical scientists, and also from Egyptologists, archaeologists, and historians -a cross-section of creative amateurs from various fields.
Aidan was responsible for over 100 articles on various aspects of public health, infectious disease, zoology, and paleopathology. His first two books were on the evolution and eradication of infectious diseases. His third book, Mummies, Diseases, and Ancient Cultures, published in 1980, received an award from the American Medical Writers Association in the 1980 Medical Book Awards competition. His wife and co-editor, Eve, accepted the award for him one week after his death.

4. Eve Gillian Fairhurst Cockburn March 3 1924-December 9 2003 Born in Astley, England, March 3, 1924; came to U.S. 1948. Daughter of Thomas and Alice (Speakman) Fairhurst; married T. Aidan Cockburn, June 25, 1945 (dec. 1981). Children: Gillian Margaret, Erika June, Vivien Jo, Alistair Aiden, and Alison Francesca. B.A. with honours, Oxford University, 1945; M.A., 1958. Science and health columnist for Berkshire Evening Eagle, 1954-1955 Syndicated science and health columnist for several Pakistani newspapers including the Civil and Military Gazette, 1958-1960; Founder and Editor, Dance Newsletter, Detroit MI, 1969-1974; Co-Founder, Paleopathology Association, 1973; President Emerita, 2000-2003; Editor, Paleopathology Newsletter, 1973-1999; Editor Emerita, 2000-2003 ; Editor, Women and Health, 1959-1960 (Pakistan); CoEditor (with T.A.Cockburn), 1980, Mummies, Disease and Ancient Cultures (Cambridge U Press); (Medical Writers of America award, 1981);Editorial Board, Journal of Paleopathology, 1988-2001; Contributing Editor, 1991-2001;Member of Scientific Committees: Cronos (1st World Mummy Congress), 1990-1992 World Council on Mummy Studies, 1992 1st International Congresses on the Evolution and Paleoepidemiology of Infectious Diseases: the Origins of Syphilis in Europe,Toulon, France, 1993 2nd International Congresses on the Evolution and Paleoepidemiology of Infectious Diseases: the Evolution and Paleoepidemiology of Tuberculosis, Budapest/Szeged, Hungary, 1997 Vice-Chairman, Antiquities Board, Detroit Institute of Arts, 1997 Fellow, Zoological Society of London Member, American Association of Physical Anthropologists.