Table 2. Historical artifacts tested for variola virus and other viruses.
| Location, date of origination, description of the artifact (date discovered) | Laboratory testing* |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Live virus isolated | Evidence by electron microscopy | Viral DNA isolated | Human DNA isolated | Other testing | |
| Egypt, 1157 bce, mummy of Ramses V with lesions; lesions were present in a centrifugal distribution and had an appearance similar to smallpox (1898, 1979) | No (2) | No (2) | No† | No† | Viral particles and faint immunologic reactivity with variola antibody; negative radioimmunoassay result for smallpox (23) |
| Egypt, 1200–1100 bce, piece of skin from male mummy with a typical smallpox rash (1911) | Portion of skin did not show definite pathologic characteristics of smallpox (24) | ||||
| Italy, sixteenth century, corpse exhumed from a crypt; lesions were umbilicated, monomorphic, and in a centrifugal distribution (1986) | No (25) | Yes (25,26) | No, by molecular hybridization (29); no, by DNA isolation and real-time PCR† | No† | Orthopoxvirus antigens not detected by hemagglutination or enzyme immunoassay (25) |
| Canada, 1640–1650, bones from an adult man located in a burial plot on Native American land; the tribe was known to have had a smallpox epidemic in 1634 (1966) | Bone analysis result was consistent with osteomyelitis variolosa (27) | ||||
| Russia, late seventeenth to early eighteenth centuries, corpses exhumed from permafrost; 1 grave had multiple bodies and evidence suggested quick postmortem burial; samples were analyzed from 1 corpse (2004) | Yes, variola virus–related DNA (28) | ||||
| England, 1729–1856, piece of skin with lesions attached to a skeleton exhumed from a crypt (1985) | No (29) | No† | No† | ||
| Russia, nineteenth century, corpses in permafrost recovered during flooding; corpses were from an area of a smallpox outbreak in the nineteenth century (1991) | No (30) | ||||
| Kentucky, USA, 1840–1860, mummified remains of a body with lesions discovered at a construction site (2000) | No† | No†* | |||
| New York, New York, USA, City, mid-1800s, mummified remains of a body with lesions contained within an iron coffin discovered at a construction site (2011) | No† | No† | No† | Yes, from a tooth† | |
| Virginia, USA, 1876, scab from the arm of an infant to be used for community vaccination; found in letter sent from son to father in Virginia; scab was on display at a museum (2011) | No† | Yes, non-variola Orthopoxvirus DNA† | Yes† | ||
| New Mexico, USA, late nineteenth century, scabs from vaccination sites contained in an envelope, which was contained within a book (2003) | No† | Yes, non-variola Orthopoxvirus DNA† | No† | ||
| Arkansas, USA, 1871–1926, suspected smallpox scabs on display at a museum (2004) | No† | No† | No† | ||
*Published laboratory results are accompanied by the reference (number in parentheses). †Previously unpublished results.