Corynebacterium in ancient Egypt.

Recent molecular analysis of pathogenic bacterial DNA recovered from a dental abscess in the mummified head of a woman more than sixty years old, buried in K95 in Dra Abu el Naga in the necropolis of western Thebes, has identified Corynebacteria as one of the pathogens present in the New Kingdom, c. 1550-1080 BC, either in the original inhabitant of the tomb or in a later, intrusive New Kingdom burial following tomb robbing.' The amplification ofCorynebacterial DNA, although it cannot be specifically identified as Corynebacterium diphtheriae, may perhaps be complemented by magical texts dating from between about 1850 and 1550 BC, which describe the treatment for a childhood disease, here tentatively (and perhaps tenuously) identified with diphtheria. Such research underlines the value of seeking to combine textual, clinical, epidemiological and molecular biological evidence to reconstruct medical history. Only the head of this female mummy was found. The treatment of this part of the body is typical of New Kingdom mummification techniques, but we had no internal organs and no evidence for other diseases from this individual. The tomb itself originated in the Middle Kingdom, but the chamber from which the sample came was used in the New Kingdom, and only artefacts from this period were found in it. There was no evidence of later burials. We also found the remains of about 40 individuals, mostly incomplete and partially skeletonized, probably as a result of disturbance by contemporary tomb robbers. Looting would explain the absence of Canopic jars in this chamber.