Paleoparasitological studies on mummies of the Joseon Dynasty, Korea

Min Seo, Adauto Araujo, Karl Reinhard, Jong Yil Chai, Dong Hoon Shin

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

42 Scopus citations

Abstract

Paleoparasitology is the application of conventional or molecular investigative techniques to archeological samples in order to reveal parasitic infection patterns among past populations. Although pioneering studies already have reported key paleoparasitological findings around the world, the same sorts of studies had not, until very recently, been conducted in sufficient numbers in Korea. Mummified remains of individuals dating to the Korean Joseon Dynasty actually have proved very meaningful to concerned researchers, owing particularly to their superb preservation status, which makes them ideal subjects for paleoparasitological studies. Over the past several years, our study series on Korean mummies has yielded very pertinent data on parasitic infection patterns prevailing among certain Joseon Dynasty populations. In this short review, we summarized the findings and achievements of our recent paleoparasitological examinations of Joseon mummies and discussed about the prospects for future research in this vein.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)235-242
Number of pages8
JournalKorean Journal of Parasitology
Volume52
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 2014

Keywords

  • Joseon Dynasty
  • Korea
  • Mummy
  • Paleoparasitology
  • Parasite

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