Plague Black Death

2022 - 6 - 17

Post cover — Image courtesy of "Livemint"

Black Death mystery solved: China an epicentre for 14th century ... (Livemint)

It is like finding the place where all the strains come together, like with coronavirus where we have Alpha, Delta, Omicron all coming from this strain in ...

“In other words, we found the Black Death’s source strain and we even know its exact date (1338)." They found genetic fingerprints of the bacterium Yersinia pestis in individuals who had been buried with tombstones. Countering the previous theories that the disease, scientists claim that it might have first emerged in China.

DNA evidence reveals where the Black Death began (The Washington Post)

In a study published Wednesday, a team of international researchers claims to offer historical proof that central Asia is where the bubonic plague actually ...

“What’s really remarkable is that today, in the rodents living in that region, we have the closest living relatives of that big bang strain (of plague bacteria),” Krause said at a news briefing. Some believed it started in China and moved westward with the invasions of the Mongol Empire about the same time. Researchers and historians have postulated about the origins of the second pandemic since it began. The disease causes lymph nodes, or buboes—the source of the term “bubonic”—to swell and ooze pus. “Most excitingly, we found aDNA of the plague bacterium in three individuals.” Remains of 30 individuals had been moved to the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography in St. Petersburg.

The 'Big Bang' of Black Death? Ancient teeth found in graves reveal ... (USA TODAY)

Ancient teeth, found in tombstones in Central Asia, revealed significant details about Black Death's source, European universities are reporting.

What made researchers dig into the graves of the mountainous landlocked country? A Stirling research team with help from Germany's Max Planck Institute and University of Tubingen detectives analyzed ancient DNA samples from the teeth of skeletons in cemeteries near Lake Issyk Kul in Kyrgyzstan and found they contained Yersinia pestis. The bubonic plague, infamously known for causing the Black Death , is one of three different types of plague, along with septicemic and pneumonic.

Origins of Plague that Wiped Out Half of Eurasia Discovered: Study (Newsweek)

The Black Death was a plague caused by the bacteria Yersinia pestis that first entered the Mediterranean via trade ships, and proceeded to rapidly spread across ...

To understand how they develop and get transmitted, it is important to consider the environmental and socio-economic history contexts, in which these processes happen." To understand the phenomenon of emerging epidemic diseases, it is essential to have as 'bigger' evolutionary picture as possible. They also found that plague strains found today around the Central Asian Tian Shan mountain range (which runs through Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Xinjiang in China and Uzbekistan) are closely genetically related to the reconstructed ancient genomes from 1338-1339. The Black Death was a plague caused by the bacteria Yersinia pestis that first entered the Mediterranean via trade ships, and proceeded to rapidly spread across Europe, Northern Africa and the Middle East in the 1300s. During the analysis, plague bacterium, Yersinia pestis was detected in all three individuals," he said. "There are, in total, 467 headstones with precisely dated inscriptions, ranging from the years 1248 to 1345CE," Slavin said.

Explained: What was the Black Death, where did it originate? (The Indian Express)

In a study published in the journal Science on June 15, researchers have claimed that the disease originated in modern day northern Kyrgyzstan around ...

Describing his experience from Siena in 1348, Italian chronicler Agnolo di Tura wrote: “Great pits were dug and piled deep with the multitude of dead. Norwegian historian Ole J Benedictow, who wrote extensively on the disease, estimated that around 60-65 per cent of Europe’s population or 52 million people died due to the plague. German physician Justus Friedrich Carl Hecker is credited with universalizing the term in his 1832 book Der Schwarze Tod (Black Death), which was translated to other languages as well. Some historians have argued that the plague originated in China, and spread across Europe by Italian merchants who first entered the continent in trading caravans through Crimea. However, historians argued that this term, which only emerged centuries later, had less to do with the disease’s clinical symptoms, and more to do with how European writers from the 19th century onwards understood the epidemic. Where did the Black Death — one of the deadliest epidemics in the history of humankind – exactly originate?

Scientists may have discovered the origins of the Black Death (The Independent)

Bubonic plague is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis and is spread by fleas, but it can also take a secondary form where it is spread from person to person ...

Start your Independent Premium subscription today. One of the most popular theories has supported its source in east Asia, specifically in China. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy policy and Terms of service apply. By clicking ‘Register’ you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use, Cookie policy and Privacy notice. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy policy and Terms of service apply. By clicking ‘Register’ you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use, Cookie policy and Privacy notice.