Habicht Michael E, Henneberg Maciej, Öhrström Lena M, Staub Kaspar, Rühli Frank J
Institute of Evolutionary Medicine, Medical Faculty, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
Biological Anthropology and Comparative Anatomy Unit, University of Adelaide, Australia.
Am J Phys Anthropol. 2015 Jul;157(3):519-25. doi: 10.1002/ajpa.22728. Epub 2015 Apr 27.
Body height is an important factor in reconstructing health conditions and it serves as an indicator of socio-economic status. Researchers rely on ancient data to analyze evolutionary aspects of human health and its interrelation with environmental influences. This study presents body height estimates from all periods of ancient Egyptian history and compares the general population with the existing mummies of the members of royal families. A sample of 259 adult Egyptian mummies originating from various collections and published sources with body lengths (long bone measures or/and overall measurements, CT data) were analyzed, and royal mummies were scored with respect to the level of consanguinity. Male royals were taller than males in the general ancient Egyptian population, while female royals were shorter than females in the general population. The body height variation of the royals is significantly reduced when compared with a pool of non-royal mummies. This provides evidence for inbreeding resulting from consanguineous marriages. However, there appears to be no correlation between the level of inbreeding and individual body height. The random sample of general population does not show signs of inbreeding. Due to the present lack of larger, technically and ethically challenging genetic studies, the selected non-invasive approach of body height is the most reliable indicator of sibling marriages of pharaohs based on direct physical evidence.
身高是重建健康状况的一个重要因素，也是社会经济地位的一个指标。研究人员依靠古代数据来分析人类健康的进化方面及其与环境影响的相互关系。本研究给出了古埃及历史各时期的身高估计值，并将普通人群与王室成员现存的木乃伊进行了比较。对来自各种藏品和已发表资料的259具成年埃及木乃伊样本（有身长数据，如长骨测量值或/和整体测量值、CT数据）进行了分析，并对王室木乃伊的近亲程度进行了评分。男性王室成员比古埃及普通男性高，而女性王室成员比普通女性矮。与一组非王室木乃伊相比，王室成员的身高差异显著减小。这为近亲结婚导致的近亲繁殖提供了证据。然而，近亲繁殖程度与个体身高之间似乎没有关联。普通人群的随机样本没有显示出近亲繁殖的迹象。由于目前缺乏规模更大、技术和伦理上具有挑战性的基因研究，基于直接物证，所选的非侵入性身高方法是法老近亲通婚最可靠的指标。
