"The syphilis enigma": the riddle resolved?

Introduction A recent Channel 4 television series, Secrets of the Dead, had one programme entitled “The Syphilis Enigma.” It presented evidence, summarised in book form, which challenged the accepted view that venereal syphilis came to Europe with the return of Columbus from his first voyage of discovery of the New World. This new and challenging case is based on a study of over 240 skeletons exhumed at the site of a medieval friary in Hull. It is claimed that some 60% of the skeletons show leg bone changes compatible with a diagnosis of syphilis. Three skeletons show a variety of bone changes indicative of syphilis. Carbon dating of one of these three skeletons states that it was alive more than 100 years before Columbus’s voyage in 1492–3.