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Back to the roots: dental calculus analysis of the first documented case of coeliac disease

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Abstract

Dental calculus of a Roman woman (late first century–early second century CE), supposed to be the first historical evidence of coeliac disease (CD), was subjected to archaeobotanical investigations for reconstructing diet and phytotherapeutic practices. Light microscopy provided the proof she came in contact with gluten-rich cereals (i.e. Triticeae, Aveninae), which, maybe, were deleterious for a CD genetic predisposed individual like her. Gas-chromatography mass-spectrometry revealed that the young woman ingested, at least once in lifetime, plant foods and several herbs (e.g. Brassicaceae, Mentha sp., Valeriana sp., Apiaceae, Asteraceae, grapes or wine, honeydew or manna). About the latter, surprisingly, markers of Curcuma sp. and Panax sp. were detected. The consumption of these rhizomes, already used in the ancient Oriental medicine, supported the existence of cultural contact and exchange with the Eastern Asia. Encouraged by modern knowledge, we hypothesised that the inhumate used these roots as natural remedies to soothe her pathological condition. Our data provided information about the key role of the ethnobotany in Roman Imperial age.

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Abbreviations

LM:

Light microscopy

GC-MS:

Gas-chromatography mass-spectrometry

CD:

Coeliac disease

EPA:

Eicosapentaenoic acid

DHA:

Docosahexaenoic acid

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Acknowledgements

The authors want to thank Prof. Giovanni Gasbarrini and Dr. Elsa Pacciani who promoted the first research activity on this case-study, “Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali – Polo Museale Regionale della Toscana” and “Museo Archeologico Nazionale e Area Archeologica di Cosa” which kindly give us the possibility to collect dental calculus and, finally, Miss Sophie Gart who revised the English form of this manuscript.

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  1. Angelo Gismondi and Alessia D’Agostino are co-first authors as they equally contributed to this work

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Biologia, Università degli Studi di Roma “Tor Vergata”, Via della Ricerca Scientifica 1, 00133, Roma, Italy

    Angelo Gismondi, Alessia D’Agostino, Gabriele Di Marco, Cristina Martínez-Labarga, Olga Rickards & Antonella Canini

  2. Soprintendenza Archeologia Belle Arti e Paesaggio per la città metropolitana di Firenze e le province di Pistoia e Prato, Piazza Pitti 1, 50125, Florence, Italy

    Valentina Leonini

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  1. Angelo Gismondi
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  2. Alessia D’Agostino
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Contributions

AG, AC and CML designed research; VL authorised the sampling; GDM, ADA and CML carried out the sampling; ADA, AG and GDM performed research; ADA, AG and GDM analysed data; AG and ADA wrote the paper; AC and OR provided financial support; all authors edited, revised and provided comments to the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Antonella Canini.

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Gismondi, A., D’Agostino, A., Di Marco, G. et al. Back to the roots: dental calculus analysis of the first documented case of coeliac disease. Archaeol Anthropol Sci 12, 6 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-019-00962-w

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