BRITAIN'S earliest ever diagnosed case of the highly infectious disease tuberculosis has been found in a rare skeleton from an Iron Age grave at Tarrant Hinton near Blandford.
Scientists from English Heritage and Imperial College, London, examined the man aged 30-40 using cutting-edge technology including DNA tests.
Radiocarbon dating indicated that the sufferer died between 400 and 230BC. Until now the earliest case recorded in Britain has been from Roman times in the 1st century AD.
English Heritage human skeletal remains expert Dr Simon Mays said: "This is the earliest case of TB yet found in Britain and could have come from the continent."
Although TB is now known as primarily a respiratory disease it can also attack the spine, as happened in the case of the Dorset man.
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