Ancient DNA Solves Mystery Over Origin of Medieval Black Death (reuters.com) 44
Long-time Slashdot reader schwit1 writes: Ancient DNA from bubonic plague victims buried in cemeteries on the old Silk Road trade route in Central Asia has helped solve an enduring mystery, pinpointing an area in northern Kyrgyzstan as the launching point for the Black Death that killed tens of millions of people in the mid-14th century.
The Black Death was the deadliest pandemic on record. It may have killed 50% to 60% of the population in parts of Western Europe and 50% in the Middle East, combining for about 50-60 million deaths, Slavin said. An "unaccountable number" of people also died in the Caucasus, Iran and Central Asia, Slavin added.
Researchers said on Wednesday they retrieved ancient DNA traces of the Yersinia pestis plague bacterium from the teeth of three women buried in a medieval Nestorian Christian community in the Chu Valley near Lake Issyk Kul in the foothills of the Tian Shan mountains who perished in 1338-1339. The earliest deaths documented elsewhere in the pandemic were in 1346.
Reconstructing the pathogen's genome showed that this strain not only gave rise to the one that caused the Black Death that mauled Europe, Asia, the Middle East and North Africa but also to most plague strains existing today.
"Our finding that the Black Death originated in Central Asia in the 1330s puts centuries-old debates to rest," said historian Philip Slavin of the University of Stirling in Scotland, co-author of the study published in the journal Nature.
The Black Death was the deadliest pandemic on record. It may have killed 50% to 60% of the population in parts of Western Europe and 50% in the Middle East, combining for about 50-60 million deaths, Slavin said. An "unaccountable number" of people also died in the Caucasus, Iran and Central Asia, Slavin added.
Researchers said on Wednesday they retrieved ancient DNA traces of the Yersinia pestis plague bacterium from the teeth of three women buried in a medieval Nestorian Christian community in the Chu Valley near Lake Issyk Kul in the foothills of the Tian Shan mountains who perished in 1338-1339. The earliest deaths documented elsewhere in the pandemic were in 1346.
Reconstructing the pathogen's genome showed that this strain not only gave rise to the one that caused the Black Death that mauled Europe, Asia, the Middle East and North Africa but also to most plague strains existing today.
"Our finding that the Black Death originated in Central Asia in the 1330s puts centuries-old debates to rest," said historian Philip Slavin of the University of Stirling in Scotland, co-author of the study published in the journal Nature.
Nestorians? (Score:2, Redundant)
So the plague was the fault of people who believe that the divine nature of Christ and the human nature of Christ are completely distinct and separate?
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The funny thing is that Elijah is actually described in the bible to go to heaven in a fiery chariot..
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Erich von Daniken rides again!
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Re:Nestorians? (Score:4, Interesting)
It's entirely possible they were sheltering sick refugees from some other community.
guest workers from wuhan (Score:1)
It's entirely possible they were sheltering sick refugees from some other community.
Or had guest workers from wuhan, northern Kyrgyzstan is pretty much on the line from Europe to wuhan.
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Well, maybe so but note that this incident predates the Wuhan infectious disease research lab by about 700 years.
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Well, maybe so but note that this incident predates the Wuhan infectious disease research lab by about 700 years.
Well there is still the eating of wet market bats hypothesis
"Solves" is a bit of an overstatement (Score:5, Insightful)
We only know that we havenâ(TM)t found earlier evidence elsewhere, which quite possibly was the case. People afflicted who did not mark gravestones, nor were concentrated in a fixed area, nomadic etc.
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We only know that we havenâ(TM)t found earlier evidence elsewhere, which quite possibly was the case. People afflicted who did not mark gravestones, nor were concentrated in a fixed area, nomadic etc.
True, as we continue on and get closer to wuhan more discoveries will probably be made. Northern Kyrgyzstan is pretty much on the line from Europe to wuhan.
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Yes, I have the same problem with the use of the word "origin". Not really. This discovery just hints at patient zero. Where the pathogen really came from is still a mystery. The fact that this location was on the Silk Road suggests that it came from somewhere else or the components leading to the deadly strain came from somewhere else.
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...peach tree dishes...
A real pity (Score:1)
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Streptomycin actually.
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If they only had Ivermectin back then.
In those days, Ivermectin believers used a poultice of mercury and aqua regia against the plague.
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If they only had Ivermectin back then.
In those days, Ivermectin believers used a poultice of mercury and aqua regia against the plague.
Shh! Or else that'll be the next anti-vaxxers covid cure.
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If they only had Ivermectin back then.
In those days, Ivermectin believers used a poultice of mercury and aqua regia against the plague.
Shh! Or else that'll be the next anti-vaxxers covid cure.
Stupid mod wastingf points on humor does not realize that I am successfully trolling him. Y'all make this too easy!
NOw mod this one troll, and achieve the trifecta of facebook level lameness. Kiss kiss.
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That said, I was cleaning the "gungy organic tars" out of my A-level chemistry project's glassware, and nothing would move it. Until I'd made a litre of aqua regia. Then one of my classmates suggest I try washing the glassware with a mild base.
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If they only had Ivermectin back then.
Wow - marked as troll? Someone with mod points must thing this is Facebook, the home of the humorless.
Please, please tell us! (Score:2)
Was the culpable rat named Scabbers or Remy?
Asking for a friend.
Where? (Score:5, Interesting)
Looking at the area on Google Maps, Burana is easy to find but the other place turns out to be transliterated as Kara-Dzhigach rather than Kara-Djigach. I had not realised that the Nestorians had been in that area but it turns out to have been a stronghold.
They left the question open as to whether trade or war spread the virus west.
Marmots (Score:5, Informative)
The bacteria that causes the plague is present in wild marmots.
When they die, from the plague or something else (population crash?), the fleas on it try to find other hosts, and if humans are in the proximity, they get infected.
This current work provides the earliest evidence available for the 1300s Black Death Plague, and that it spread west over the Silk Road.
Listen to the author of the paper (Slavin) explaining it all on CBC Quirks and Quarks [www.cbc.ca].
Digression ... appropriate for our times ...
The chronicles of contemporary medieval historian (Ibn Kathir of Damascus) wrote that the plague hit in 1349 C.E. He says it started in Crimea, then to other parts of Europe, where in Cyprus most of the inhabitants died. Then it arrived in Gaza where tens of thousands perished in one month. In Damascus, he said that "if it entered a house, then the entire inhabitants perished". More women died than men. Those who were responsible for handling the dead (washing them, wrapping them in shrouds, and carrying them out of the house, then burying them) demanded exorbitant amounts of money, that the governor had to intervene. Prayer services for the dead in the Umayyad Mosque alone initially were a few tens of people, then increased to 100, then later 150. Other mosques had more people, and some were taken from the home to the cemeteries directly, not counting other faiths. Then deaths kept increasing until there was a stench in Damascus. Then it receded by the end of the lunar year.
It was not the deadliest plague in history (Score:3, Informative)
Re:It was not the deadliest plague in history (Score:4, Informative)
If you're defining "deadlier" by percentage of a given population, then yes. If you're going by numbers of dead, no.
Or maybe...as others above pointed out, since we only know what we've discovered. I imagine somewhere in history there was a village of 10 people where 100% died of a disease, so I suppose that's "deadliest" if you're shooting for percentages.
I say this only because I'm not sure what you're going after here...
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Not sure how asking what his definition of "deadliest" is, by numbers or by percentage, makes me a Trumper. You'd also be wrong on that front.
InterGuru implied that the smallpox pandemic was "deadlier" than the Black Plague. If by deadlier he/she meant more deaths, that would be untrue. The smallpox plague in the Americas is estimated to have killed 20-30 million, which is significantly less than 75-200 million thought to have died in Europe-Asia in the Black Death. If though InterGuru means percentage, the
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But it's hard to add up the centuries of low-level, non-epidemic plague. And smallpox. And boring old run-of-the-mill influenza. A million a year would be statistically and medically invisible, and over a millenn
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The origin of smallpox is unknown, nor is it contracted from domesticated animals (this is why it was eradicated by vaccination; it has no animal reservoir). If you're assuming that the similarity between cowpox and smallpox somehow shows that smallpox "came from" cows, that has not been proven. Some scientists have postulated it came from rats a long time ago...again though...unproven at this time.
If you have another source for a smallpox origin, happy to read it.
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So that is the reason it traveled with a multi-year wave over Asua and Europe, which was very well documented. Must have been one hell of a comet.
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I suspect the AC is conflating this story with the late 8th century tree ring event, which I think has been attributed to a Mexican volcano. But ... it's hard to pick an AC's mind.