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Advances in analytical techniques have allowed to find microscopic evidence of what could be considered early hospice care, frequently in the form of distinctive foods that the individuals would have been too ill or too young to procure themselves. https://phys.org/news/2020-12-mummy-gi-tracts-yield-evidence.html
Researchers analyzed the intestinal contents of three mummies.
One of the case studies is the Skiles mummy, a man who lived sometime between 1,000 and 1,400 years ago near the Rio Grande in modern-day Texas.
Microscopy of minuscule plant remnants, pollen and animal remains
One of the case studies is the Skiles mummy, a man who lived sometime between 1,000 and 1,400 years ago near the Rio Grande in modern-day Texas.
Microscopy of minuscule plant remnants, pollen and animal remains
Infected with the parasite-carried Chagas disease, the man's colon swelled to six times its normal diameter. For the last months of his life the man starved. The final meals he did consume consisted entirely of grasshoppers. His family or community took care to take off the legs.
Karl Reinhard, professor in the School of Natural Resources at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln: "So they were giving him mostly the fluid-rich body... In addition to being high in protein, it was pretty high in moisture. So it would have been easier for him to eat..."
