Science!

From bad backs to eye strain, office work can take its toll on the body.

But it seems such perils are nothing new: researchers have found Egyptian scribes experienced damage to their hips, jaws and thumbs as a result of their efforts.

Experts studying the remains of scribes buried in the necropolis at Abusir, Egypt, between 2700 and 2180BC say that, compared with men who undertook other work, the administrators showed signs of degenerative joint changes.


“Our study should provide an answer to the question of what occupational risk factors were associated with the ‘profession’ of scribe in ancient Egypt,” said Petra Brukner Havelková, the first author of the study, at the National Museum in Prague. She added the work could also help with the identification of scribes among skeletons of individuals whose titles or profession were not known.

In the journal Scientific Reports, the team told how they analysed the remains of 69 adult males from Abusir dating to the third millennium BC, 30 of whom were known to have been scribes.

With only 1% of the population able to read and write, such men had an elevated social status and undertook crucial administrative work. Veronika Dulíková, a co-author of the study from Charles University in Prague, said scribes had been known to start working as teenagers in a professional career that may have lasted decades.

However, it seems the job might have taken a toll. While the team found small differences in the prevalence of certain skeletal traits between scribes and non-scribes, suggesting the two groups were very similar, scribes almost always had a higher incidence of certain changes.…….

https://www.theguardian.com/science...related-injuries-study?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other