What DNA analysis reveals of seven people who died in the 14th century from plague (plague) – Research with a Greek leader
A mystery of 675 years seems to have found its solution. DNA analysis of seven people who died in the 14th century from plague (plague) shows that the terrible “Black Death”, as it became known, probably the largest pandemic in human history, which swept Europe in the Middle Ages, came from Central Eurasia and specifically from the region of present-day northern Kyrgyzstan. This is the conclusion of a new German scientific research led by a Greek woman from the Diaspora.
The so-called “black plague”, caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, killed up to 60% of the European population between 1346-1353 AD. Despite the efforts of scientists for years, the geographical origin of that pandemic has remained uncertain until now, with possible areas from where the infectious disease originated, extending from Western Eurasia to East Asia and China.
The researchers, with headed by Dr. Maria Spyroua postdoctoral fellow at the German University of Tübingen and the Department of Archeogenetics at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Human History in Jena, published in the journal Nature, identified the Tian Shan area of ​​Lake Issyk-Kul in present-day Kyrgyzstan as the most likely epicenter of the plague, which then spread westward mainly through trade routes.
Archaeologists have found in the area unexpectedly many tombs of the period 1338-1339 AD. with indications, such as inscriptions in the Syrian language on tombstones, alluding to the plague as a cause of death. Combined with the new genetic analysis of ancient DNA from the teeth of seven skeletons in two cemeteries in this area and the detection of the “guilty” Yersinia bacterium in three of them, the study concluded that that point played a key role in its outbreak. epidemic. Comparative genetic analysis with current strains of the same bacterium, concluded that the ancient strain was of local origin.
In 1347 the plague entered the Mediterranean through maritime trade and ships carrying goods from the Black Sea region then under the control of the Mongolian Golden Horde. The plague then spread to Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. This first wave continued into a long second wave that lasted until the 19th century.
“We found the source of the Black Death and we still know its exact date (1338),” said Spyrou, who specializes in the history and evolution of infectious diseases, especially plague.
“Despite the risk of environmental contamination (of the DNA samples) and the lack of guarantees that the bacteria could be preserved, we were able to sequence ancient DNA from seven people from two cemeteries and find the DNA of the plague bacterium in three of them,” he added. .
Professor Johannes Krause of the Max Planck Institute noted that “just like Covid, the Black Death was an emerging disease and the beginning of a huge pandemic that lasted for about 500 years. It is very important to really understand the conditions under which the plague occurred.”
Plague is not primarily a human disease, but its bacterium survives in rodent populations around the world. Logically, according to the researchers, the ancient Central Asian strain that caused the local epidemic of 1338-39 and then triggered the wider pandemic must also have come from rodents.
