Mummy remains refute antiquity of ankylosing spondylitis

(Wiley) Ankylosing spondylitis is a systemic disease that causes inflammation in the spinal joints and was thought to have affected members of the ancient Egyptian royal families. Now a new study published in Arthritis & Rheumatology, a journal of the American College of Rheumatology, refutes that claim, finding instead a degenerative spinal condition called diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis in royal Egyptian mummies from the 18th to early 20th Dynasties.