pestis was not the sole cause of the two devastating plagues, but merely the “final straw” that killed people weakened by another, fast-spreading infection – the way bacterial pneumonia often strikes after flu. This remains the case today in places such as Madagascar where the bacteria frequently cause human disease. pestis travelled worldwide in the so-called “third pandemic” at the turn of the 20th century, however, it spread slowly, and rarely from person to person. pestis.īoth the plague of Justinian and the Black Death raced across Europe, as if spreading from human to human.
Different characterīut the gene sequences cannot yet explain why both plagues behaved so differently from disease caused by modern Y. This suggests the plagues emerged separately, and repeatedly, from the bacteria’s usual hosts, ground-dwelling rodents such as marmots. pestis DNA from a mass grave dug during the 1348 plague in Spitalfields, London, suggest those bacteria are ancestors of all modern human infections worldwide. They were surprised to find that the German bacteria merit their own branch, with no known descendants. With the complete sequence the team can position the bacteria on the family tree of all Y. The position of the other grave, says Poinar, suggests a similar date.īavaria was outside the Roman Empire, but records of the time report that the highly contagious disease spread beyond its borders, into Persia and across the Roman frontier at the Rhine. Such beads date one of the two skeletons to 525-550 AD, very close to the first wave of Justinian’s plague.
The beads buried with women in the cemetery were used to date the burials – previous work had shown that fashions changed quickly in Iron Age Bavaria, fast enough that the styles can date graves to the nearest 25 years with them. Video: Ancient teeth reveal origin of the Justinian plague
0 kommentar(er)
