>Archaeologists and medical researchers are examining human bones found by Kathleen Kenyon at the site of the ancient city of Jericho in order to develop treatments for tuberculosis.

According to a news report published in the Guardian, a group of Israeli, Palestinian, and German researchers, will be using the results of the work of British archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon in the old city of Jericho to conduct their research. In her excavations, Kenyon found bones from thousands of humans; some of these bones are 8,000 years old.

When researchers studied these bones, they discovered many of them had lesions, indicating that many of the inhabitants of Jericho suffered from tuberculosis.

In jest, the writer of the news report wrote that the walls of Jericho may have come down, not with a trumpet blast, but with an epidemic of coughing.

Tuberculosis can be a very infectious disease. People become infected with prolonged contact with people who are infected with the disease. The disease can also be transmitted by eating meat if the cattle is infected with TB. In the case of Jericho, one wonders how the disease originated among the city’s population.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Archaeology, Jericho, Tuberculosis

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