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Ankylosing spondylitis has a long history, having been distinguished from rheumatoid arthritis by Galen as early as the 2nd century AD.[45] Skeletal evidence of the disease (ossification of joints and entheses primarily of the axial skeleton, known as "bamboo spine") was found in an archaeological dig that unearthed the skeletal remains of a 5000-year-old Egyptian mummy with evidence of bamboo spine.[46]