Ancient Vietnamese bones hint at congenital treponemal disease before Columbus myths
New analysis of three ancient Vietnamese children's remains (4,100–3,300 years old) from Man Bac and An Son shows signs of congenital treponematosis, likely non-venereal forms such as yaws, suggesting maternal-to-child transmission could occur outside syphilis and prompting reevaluation of how treponemal diseases origins are understood and how skeletal evidence is interpreted in archaeology.