Posted on 09/23/2023 11:35:10 AM PDT by nickcarraway
There are few events in human history as ominous — both in name and impact — as the Black Death.
The bubonic plague pandemic made its way across Eurasia and north Africa between 1346 and 1553. It's estimated to have killed up to 200 million people, or 60 per cent of the Earth's entire population at the time.
Now, scientists believe they have pinpointed the origin of the Black Death to a region of present day Kyrgyzstan called Issyk-Kul, once a stopover on the Silk Road trade route in the 14th century.
Its place of origin has been one of the most hotly debated controversies in the history of epidemiology. Philip Slavin, an associate professor of environmental history at Stirling University in Scotland, and part of the research team, told Quirks & Quarks host Bob McDonald there have been a couple of prevailing theories over the past 200 years.
"The Black Death was thought to have originated either in China or in Central Asia," Slavin said. "But one thing in common to those theories was that there was absolutely no way to actually prove those theories without the ancient DNA." 14th century grave markers referred to 'pestilence' The new study began several years ago when by chance Slavin came across a graveyard in the Lake Issyk-Kul region of present-day Kyrgyzstan. The graveyard had clearly marked and dated gravestones that showed an unusually high number of burials in the years 1338 and 1339.
"What's really remarkable is that some of those tombstones, the inscriptions were actually longer and more detailed than others," Slavin said. "They stated very precisely that the cause of the death of those individuals was 'pestilence.'"
Slavin wanted to investigate further, because these deaths occurred only six or seven years before the Black Death turned up in Europe. He thought there could be a connection. So he and his colleagues looked for ancient DNA from skulls that had been found by archeologists from the graveyard during excavations in the 1880s and 90s.
Microbial DNA from the skulls matched DNA from the plague bacterium called Yersinia pestis, the strain responsible for the plague.
Their research was published in the journal Nature.
"We also were able to actually compare that strain to other strains from the Black Death in Europe. And what we found, astonishingly, is that genetically, that particular strain from northern Kyrgyzstan actually precedes the other strains from Europe." Slavin said.
"It is situated exactly just before a very important evolutionary event," which Slavin and his colleagues came to call the plague bacteria's "big bang" of diversification into different genetic variants. "So that strain preceded this huge big bang, whereas the main line split into four new lines. And one of those lines actually gave birth to the Black Death in Europe. So we know it actually started there in Central Asia."
The value of ancient DNA Dr. David Fisman, an epidemiologist at the University of Toronto, said in an email that ancient DNA studies like this "have really provided a lot of insights into the origins of historical plagues."
In particular, he pointed to the value of the nucleic amplification technology that the researchers used, which allowed them to take tiny amounts of preserved ancient DNA and make copies of it to study.
"The ability to amplify sequences, even when material has been buried in the ground for centuries, does transform the way we understand epidemics."
But in the case of understanding where the Black Death originated, ancient DNA answered only one part of the mystery. Slavin and his team still didn't know how this virulent strain of plague got into humans in the first place.
The bubonic plague often persists in the wild in rodents, and Slavin thinks he knows which species was responsible.
"It was really bound to start with local marmots, because the marmot is the most prevalent type of plague-carrying rodent in that region." Salvin said. Marmots are large ground squirrels common in the area.
"And at some point, something must have happened which prompted those bacteria to cross over from marmots into humans. Usually what happens is that you have population collapse in those rodents. And then fleas which are carrying the bacteria become very, very unhappy, and they start seeking an alternative host — and this [new host] is usually humans."
The Black Death takes the Silk Road Another key part of the story is that this region of Kyrgyzstan was a stopover on the Silk Road trading route that extended from China to western Europe. The Black Death then spread by humans, or fleas travelling with humans, as they travelled the Silk Road, according to Slavin.
"We suspect that both long-distance trade and the local regional trade were a very, very paramount factor in spreading this disease all the way from Tian Shan region into west Eurasia and beyond," he said.
Written and produced by Mark Crawley
I’ve never bought into the flea bite theory.
It’s more likely that Y Pestis made the jump from animal to human due to human consumption of marmots and other carriers of the disease.
~~~~~
I agree. The human digest tract is predetermined to be the primary vector to spread deadly viruses. This vector has caused all of the evolutionary mutations which so drastically changed us from our primitive primate ancestors of 3 million years ago.
Why would 1340 be any different?
Zonulin is the primary infection facilitator.
Also known as “whistle pigs” too, here in Pennsylvania.
Sounds like more "Gain of Function Research".
So Punxsutawney Phil is a whistle pig!
Because of cleanliness jewish people were less likely to catch it.Many people of the time therefore blamed the joooos!!!
Hahahaha...with that Selfie Stick, he is certain to poke a hole in someone with that sharp beak!
I didn’t know Kyrgyzstan was Christian before it became Islamic.
Wuhanistan.
Yep. Bubonic Plague, various types of influenza, COVID and
many sorts of animal diseases come from China.
My father was in China during WWII. He said it was the
filthiest place he ever seen, along with India.
Because of his experiences there he never ate Chinese food
or entered a Chinese restaurants til the day he died.
After the war my father worked at Walter Reed in the vaccine
division. He knew something about infectious diseases.
first of all, Black death killed about third of the population in Europe. All the traditional historians and history records agree to this number. Anything more is a present day exaggeration. Media now like to exaggerate everything!
But Europe was always exposed to Asia and Africa, one way or other there were always travel routes active.
Population of Americas and Pacific islanders were isolated, so when first European arrived, the population was devastated.
The smallpox and other European diseases actually often preceded actual European visitors.
E.g. Peruvian Incas were already devastated by smallpox when Pizarro showed up.
Christianity preceded Islam by about 800 years.
I have had food poisoning only twice in my life. Both times the result of eating Chinese food.
“Most historians think that the plague killed somewhere between 30% and 60% of Europe's population between 1347 and 1351.“
“Bring out your dead”
Very interesting as well.
https://www.bbc.com/news/health-63316538
“The Black Death is one of the most significant, deadliest and bleakest moments in human history. It is estimated that up to 200 million people died.
Researchers suspected an event of such enormity must have shaped human evolution. They analysed DNA taken from the teeth of 206 ancient skeletons and were able to precisely date the human remains to before, during or after the Black Death.
The analysis included bones from the East Smithfield plague pits which were used for mass burials in London with more samples coming from Denmark.
The standout finding, published in the journal Nature, surrounded mutations in a gene called ERAP2.
If you had the right mutations you were 40% more likely to survive the plague.
“That's huge, it's a huge effect, it's a surprise to find something like that in the human genome,” Professor Luis Barreiro, from the University of Chicago, told me.”
Thanks for posting.
“Zonulin is the primary infection facilitator.”
I had never heard of such a critter as Zonulin. It was interesting for me to discover that it controls the permeability of the cells of the intestine. I learn something new every day.
Yes,but I didn’t know Chritianity had reached all the way to Kyrgyzstan before Islam did. I would have guessed they were still pagan or maybe even Buddhist.
if you get’em trapped in a cave and their eyes go red, leave ‘em be.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0YR6wNco5k
at 1:51.
Yup, odd - Christianity had reached all the way to Kyrgyzstan but has yet to reach New York City....
Until the 21st century, when the pandemic of mental illness known as "liberalism" or "progressivism" or "wokism" surpassed it in this odious distinction.
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