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In the 1200’s in Europe something began to change. Most of the wealth of Europe came from the produce of land. Pollen evidence, as well as glacial evidence, prove that from 750 AD to 800 AD, and again two hundred years later from 1150 AD to 1200 AD, Europe’s weather suddenly starting warming, known as the “Medieval Warm”. Pollen studies of the beech forests along the Fernau glacier and in the Ardenes region of Northern France prove that these forests started to expand their borders during the late Eight Century from their A.D. 200 borders, and we discover that Alpine...

A prolonged period of wet weather spurred the spread of the Bubonic plague in medieval times, according to a new study. And a 300-year spell of unpredictable weather coincided with the decline of the Roman Empire. Climate change wasn't necessarily the cause of these and other major historical events, researchers say. But the study offers the most detailed picture yet of how climate and society have been intertwined for millennia. Again and again, the data suggest, climate has impacted culture in dramatic ways. Unusually extreme and frequent shifts in weather patterns between 250 and 550, for example, coincided with a...

An extensive study of tree growth rings says there could be a link between the rise and fall of past civilisations and sudden shifts in Europe's climate. A team of researchers based their findings on data from 9,000 wooden artifacts from the past 2,500 years. They found that periods of warm, wet summers coincided with prosperity, while political turmoil occurred during times of climate instability. The findings have been published online by the journal Science. "Looking back on 2,500 years, there are examples where climate change impacted human history," co-author Ulf Buntgen, a paleoclimatologist at the Swiss Federal Research Institute...

Enlarge Image Preserved. Climate changes recorded in tree rings correlate with important events in European history, such as the Black Death. Credit: Wikimedia When empires rise and fall and plagues sweep over the land, people have traditionally cursed the stars. But perhaps they should blame the weather. A new analysis of European tree-ring samples suggests that mild summers may have been the key to the rise of the Roman Empire—and that prolonged droughts, cold snaps, and other climate changes might have played a part in historical upheavals, from the barbarian invasions that brought about Rome's collapse to the Black...

Medieval DNA, Modern Medicine Volume 60 Number 6, November/December 2007 by Heather Pringle Will a cemetery excavation establish a link between the Black Death and resistance to AIDS? Beneath Eindhoven's modern skin of brick and asphalt lie the bones of its medieval townspeople. Studying their DNA may reveal the origin of the genetic resistance to AIDS. (Courtesy Laurens Mulkens) From the start, Nico Arts sensed that the frail remains of a child buried in front of a medieval church altar had an important story to tell. Arts is the municipal archaeologist in Eindhoven, a prosperous industrial city in the southern...

An international team of scientists has discovered that two of the most devastating pandemics in human history -- responsible for killing as much as half the population in Europe at the time -- were caused by strains of the same bacterium. The researchers announced Monday that the Plague of Justinian and the Black Death were caused by distinct strains of the same pathogen, and warned that similar pandemics can strike again. The Plague of Justinian struck in the 6th century and is estimated to have killed between 30 and 50 million people -- virtually half the world’s population as it...

How The Bubonic Plague Actually Saved Europe In The 14th Century Sam Ro May 15, 2013, 1:31 PM Studying the history of financial crises can be quite enlightening. Deutsche Bank's Peter Hooper just published an interesting report considering crises going back to the Middle Ages. Referring to the work of Juesus Huerta de Soto, Geld, Bankkredit und Konjunkturzyklen, and Stuttgart, Hooper summarizes what happened during the European credit crisis of the 14th century. What's interesting is how the country got out of the crisis. From Hooper's note (emphasis added): In the early 14th century banks in Florence engaged in a...

The chances of surviving the Black Death Why did some people survive the Black Death, and others succumb? At the time of the plague – which ravaged Europe from 1347 to 1351, carrying off 50 million people, perhaps half the population – various prophylactics were tried, from the killing of birds, cats and rats to the wearing of leather breeches (protecting the legs from flea bites) and the burning of aromatic spices and herbs. Now it seems that the best way of avoiding death from the disease was to be fit and healthy. Sharon DeWitte and James Wood of the...

Black Death targeted the weak By Roger Highfield, Science Editor Last Updated: 10:01pm GMT 28/01/2008 The Black Death, which killed one person in every three in Europe, was not as indiscriminate as thought, according to studies of remains in mass grave in East Smithfield. Skeletons of plague victims in a mass grave at East Smithfield, London The toll was so high during its height in the 1300s that many have concluded that anyone and everyone who came into contact with the agent, thought to be a bacterium, was doomed. But research published today shows that people who were physically frail...

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...

Records say thousands of Londoners perished and their corpses were dumped in a mass grave outside the City, but its exact location was a mystery. Archaeologists now believe it is under Charterhouse Square near the Barbican. They plan to expand their search for victims across the square - guided by underground radar scans, which have picked up signs of many more graves. Crossrail's lead archaeologist Jay Carver says the find "solves a 660-year-old mystery". "This discovery is a hugely important step forward in documenting and understanding Europe's most devastating pandemic," he said

hat caused the fall of the Roman Empire? A devastating plague that struck during the reign of Emperor Justinian in 541 AD, killing a quarter of the population, seems to have landed the final blow, but the identity of the infection was a mystery. Now sequencing of DNA taken from two skeletons buried in Bavaria, Germany, in the 6th century has uncovered the complete genome of Yersinia pestis, the bacteria also blamed for the Black Death that struck Europe in 1348. The find suggests that Y. pestis may have emerged to ravage humanity several times. Hendrik Poinar at McMaster University...

Controversial new research suggests that contrary to the history books, the "Black Death" that devastated medieval Europe was not the bubonic plague, but rather an Ebola-like virus. History books have long taught the Black Death, which wiped out a quarter of Europe's population in the Middle Ages, was caused by bubonic plague, spread by infected fleas that lived on black rats. But new research in England suggests the killer was actually an Ebola-like virus transmitted directly from person to person. The Black Death killed some 25 million Europeans in a devastating outbreak between 1347 and 1352, and then reappeared periodically...

Things seem to be looking up for rats. After more than 500 years, rats may be off the hook for causing the Black Death, the horrible plague that claimed up to 60% of the European population. In virtually every textbook the Bubonic Plague, which is spread by flea-ridden rats, is named as the culprit behind the chaos. But mounting evidence suggests that an Ebola-like virus was the actual cause of the Black Death and the sporadic outbreaks that occurred in the following 300 years. At the forefront of this theory are two researchers from the University of Liverpool, Dr. Christopher...

As in cockroaches. But vermin is nothing new in a building that is 213 years old--and roaches aren't the worst of it...

A plague-infected squirrel has closed a California campground for at least a week, according to Los Angeles County health officials. The squirrel, trapped July 16 in the Table Mountain Campgrounds of Angeles National Forest, tested positive for the infection Tuesday, prompting a health advisory and the closing of the campground while investigators tested other squirrels and dusted the area for plague-infected fleas. "Plague is a bacterial infection that can be transmitted to humans through the bites of infected fleas, which is why we close affected campgrounds and recreational areas as a precaution while preventive measures are taken to control the...

...The bacterium that causes plague, Yersinia pestis, has been linked with at least two of the most devastating pandemics in recorded history. One, the Great Plague, which lasted from the 14th to 17th centuries, included the infamous epidemic known as the Black Death, which may have killed nearly two-thirds of Europe in the mid-1300s. Another, the Modern Plague, struck around the world in the 19th and 20th centuries, beginning in China in the mid-1800s and spreading to Africa, the Americas, Australia, Europe and other parts of Asia. Although past studies confirmed this germ was linked with both of these catastrophes,...

The genetic code of the germ that caused the Black Death has been reconstructed by scientists for the first time. The researchers extracted DNA fragments of the ancient bacterium from the teeth of medieval corpses found in London. They say the pathogen is the ancestor of all modern plagues. The research, published in the journal Nature, suggests the 14th Century outbreak was also the first plague pandemic in history.

FOURTEEN HOLY HELPERS   A group of saints invoked with special confidence because they have proven themselves efficacious helpers in adversity and difficulties, known and venerated under the name Fourteen Holy Helpers. Though each has a seperate feast or memorial day, the group was collectively venerated on 8 August. However, this feast was dropped and suppressed in the 1969 reform of the calendar. They are invoked as a group because of the Black Plague which devastated Europe from 1346 to 1349. Among its symptoms were the tongue turning black, a parched throat, violent headache, fever, and boils on the...

A man has been hospitalized in Oregon who is believed to be suffering from the black plague, a disease that killed about one-third of the population of Europe during the Middle Ages. The unidentified man in his 50s became ill several days after being bitten when he tried to get a mouse out of the mouth of a stray cat, according to OregonLive.com. The man was listed in critical condition in a Bend hospital on Tuesday. NZ Herald News reported that the man showed classic symptoms of the plague—swollen lymph nodes in the groin and armpits. But doctors said he...