DeWitte has analyzed the skeletal remains of more than 1,000 men, women and children who lived before, during and after the Black Death.
Posted on 05/30/2014 6:37:26 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
A new study suggests that people who survived the medieval mass-killing plague known as the Black Death lived significantly longer and were healthier than people who lived before the epidemic struck in 1347.
Caused by the bacteria Yersinia pestis, the Black Death wiped out 30 percent of Europeans and nearly half of Londoners during its initial four-year wave from 1347 – 1351...
The findings have important implications for understanding emerging diseases and how they impact the health of individuals and populations of people...
She says the Black Death was a single iteration of a disease that has affected humans since at least the 6th century Plague of Justinian...
To better understand those human factors DeWitte has spent the last decade examining the skeletal remains of more 1,000 men, women and children who lived before, during and after the Black Death. The skeletons, maintained in the archives of the Museum of London, were excavated from a handful of well-documented London cemeteries, including St. Mary Spital, Guildhall Yard, St. Nicholas Shambles and St. Mary Graces...
DeWitte's analysis has revealed several important findings. Most notably that:
the 14th-century Black Death was not an indiscriminate killer, but instead targeted frail people of all ages;
survivors of the Black Death experienced improvements in health and longevity, with many people living to ages of 70 or 80 years, as compared to pre-Black Death populations;
improvements in survival post-Black Death didn't necessarily equate to good health over a lifespan, but revealed a hardiness to endure disease, including repeated bouts of plague; and
the Black Death, either directly or indirectly, very powerfully shaped mortality patterns for generations after the epidemic ended.
DeWitte says she was surprised by how much of a change she estimated between the pre- and post-Black Death periods...
(Excerpt) Read more at sc.edu ...
DeWitte has analyzed the skeletal remains of more than 1,000 men, women and children who lived before, during and after the Black Death.
She could do whatever she wants with my skeleton...
“She could do whatever she wants with my skeleton...”
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Is that a portion of your skeleton in the box behind her left arm?
I’m apparently one of those people who can survive anything. That doesn’t mean its always fun.
But, do you reallllly want to find out what Laz does with a hard old boner?
Stop it, you guys! Dammit y’all crack me up! LOL!
Behave! :0)
Our country will be a lot better off once our current crop of seniors are feeding the worms. "Gimme, gimme, gimme! Pay me 'til I tell you to stop."
This world has never seen so much unproductive protoplasm.
People of European descent, whose ancestors survived the black death, commonly have a particular immune system variation that is only found rarely in other races. It is thought that this particular variation helped those ancestors survive. That variation could be the basis of the hardiness that Dr. DeWitte has observed.
Perhaps the survivors would have lived even longer had they not contracted the plague.
Mr. Mataz had better take a number.
As a former archaeologist, I’d just like to say, “I’d like to check her bones”.
Cute lady.
However, I read these same conclusions decades ago when the first studies on the bodies of the plague victims were matched against those of the survivors.
The survivors also improved the gene pool which was flushed out by the plague’s killing the weaker population.
However, in this day and age of political correctness, do we have to change the name of the Black Plague (known in America as President Obama and Mooschelle) to something less racist, such as the “Dark Plague” or the “Not White Plague?
Is it still allowable to put a “plague on your house” curse on someone or do we have to say “May a flock of deadly fleas infest your abode”?
Just asking. Late Friday night. Work is done. Tomatoes to plant tomorrow, cats stomaches to scratch, and fresh Mulberries to eat right from the tree.
Carney - GONE
Shinseki - GONE
OBAMA - WHEN?
Well, you gotta admit... after all he’s been into...that dude is hard to kill.
One of the guys that survived was Nostradamus.
Course it made him kind of weird.
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