Vlok, Melandri, Minh, Tran, Caplinski, Nicola, Buckley, Hallie, Domett, Kate, Trinh, Hoang, Huu, Nghia, Dung, Do Thi Kim, Sau, Nguyen Thi, Lan, Do Thi, Phuoc, Luong Hong, Matsumura, Hirofumi, and Oxenham, Marc (2026) Dental Stigmata and Skeletal Lesions of Congenital Treponematosis in Early Agricultural Vietnam (4000–3500 bp). International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, 36 (2). pp. 401-413.

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Abstract

Prior research has documented treponematosis at a single site in Mainland Southeast Asia from northern Vietnam dated to the early agricultural transition (~4000–3500 bp). To date, no other cases in Southeast Asia's prehistory have been identified. Here, we present evidence for congenital treponematosis in three non-adults from two different sites in north and south Neolithic Vietnam (4000–3200 bp) who present with dental and/or skeletal evidence consistent with congenital treponematosis, including Moon's molars of the deciduous and permanent dentition, gummatous lesions, saddle nose, and goundou. Following an extensive review of clinical and paleopathological literature, we provide here a new threshold approach for dental stigmata related to congenital transmission of treponematosis. No other cases of treponematosis (congenital or acquired) were found in Vietnam following an extensive analysis of archaeological assemblages dated from 10,000 to 1000 bp (n = 309), suggesting treponemal disease was not a widespread condition on the east coast of Mainland Southeast Asia in prehistory. These findings also indicate a deep plasticity of Treponema pallidum, as the broader epidemiology still indicates a non-venereal form of the disease in Vietnam's prehistory, even with the evidence of congenital transmission.

Item ID:	91272
Item Type:	Article (Research - C1)
ISSN:	1099-1212
Copyright Information:	This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes. © 2026 The Author(s). International Journal of Osteoarchaeology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Date Deposited:	22 Apr 2026 00:42
FoR Codes:	43 HISTORY, HERITAGE AND ARCHAEOLOGY > 4301 Archaeology > 430102 Archaeology of Asia, Africa and the Americas @ 60% 44 HUMAN SOCIETY > 4401 Anthropology > 440103 Biological (physical) anthropology @ 40%
SEO Codes:	13 CULTURE AND SOCIETY > 1307 Understanding past societies > 130702 Understanding Asia’s past @ 100%
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