The Egyptians got many things right. Sitting wasn’t one of them | Tech News [Video]

Reckon RSI is a 21st Century problem? Apparently not – even Ancient Egyptians suffered from workplace injuries.

While modern office staff are warned not to spend their days hunched over a desk, it seems early workers had no such health and safety rules in place.

New research has revealed that scribes suffered from hip, spine and shoulder problems from sitting cross-legged with their head bent forwards for hours on end – including deformed knees.

Researchers looked at 4,000-year-old male skeletons to investigate the occupational hazards of the repetitive tasks done by high status men who could write and perform administrative tasks.

It seems the positions the men sat in while working may have led to degenerative skeletal changes – including indentations on both kneecaps and a flattened surface on a bone in the lower part of the right ankle.

Study lead Dr Petra Brukner Havelkova and her colleagues examined the skeletal remains of 69 adult males, 30 …