Funnily enough traces of cocaine have been found in mummies as well. More
support for Thor Heyerdahl about the contact between the America of those days
and Egypt...
I've seen a few documentaries on BBC so nothing like a link for here I'm afraid.

Worn out teeth because the grain was ground with stones is a factor that is
evident in all mummies.  Poorer people had it more and forensic research showed
that the richer were better fed with meat and fish.  Poor people tended to eat
bread, veggies and some fruit mostly.
Still in our society today we can see this happening.  Wealthier men and women
tend to eat more proteine because they can afford to.
Also a research came out here in Holland this week about the relation between
health and money. Not to anyone's surprise 'bad' neighourhoods with poorer
people had more disease, less livespan for it's inhabitans and less quality of
life.
The healthcare system in Holland provides everybody with insurance so that is
not a factor. It's the diet that makes them more vulnerable to disease.
Surprise, surprise....

Christy


>  He rules out tobacco and syphilis, since they had neither. He
> > wants to blame meat consumption, but has to admit that even the
> > wealthier classes who were mummified (and had the arteriosclerosis) had
> > a coarse, mainly vegetable diet. He winds up saying that the causes are
> > as "obscure" as they are today, and I would like to suggest that he just
> > didn't know about hyperinsulinemia due to starch-based diet. Another
> > possibility is that gliadin from whole-wheat was causing
> > autoimmune-related artery disease.
>