A Bronze Age burial in southwestern Russia, dated to about 5,300 years ago, may have held evidence of a man's pain that compounded an already difficult life. The man may have had a jagged kidney stone roughly the size of a grape.
Here's what to know
Researchers led by Natalia Berezina of Lomonosov Moscow State University examined the man's skeleton from a monumental burial mound, or kurgan, according to Vice. Their research appeared in Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences.
The man had survived multiple fractures before his death and also suffered from gout. Evidence of heavy physical labor pointed to a demanding life working on the steppe.
Researchers also found a brown mineral mass about 0.8 inches across, which they believed was a kidney stone. The broken bones, meanwhile, may have resulted from handling heavy wagons or cattle.
More background
Vice described significant urinary pain that could have accompanied the strenuous demands of transporting cargo across the steppe and working on horseback.
The stone's size left him with few treatment options in an era without modern medicine.
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Sepsis may ultimately have caused his death if the stone obstructed his ureter and triggered the infection.
Whitlockite, a calcium salt associated with bacterial activity, was present in the mineral mass. Berezina's team identified it through X-ray diffraction, helping them assess the suspected kidney stone.
Researchers recovered the mass from among the man's hand bones.
Where can I learn more?
This suspected kidney stone offers a glimpse at the pain people endured thousands of years ago, and how that and other finds provide insight into ancient civilizations.
• In Indonesia, ancient teeth suggest psychoactive betel nut use began long before farming.
• In China, a 700-year-old skull offers the first evidence of punitive nose amputation.
• In England, children's teeth reveal medieval lead pollution rivaled levels in industrial-era cities.
• In France, a hillside home build stopped after excavations revealed a 2,000-year-old city underneath.
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