![]() “The temptation is always to theorise an apocalyptic Medieval Black Death scenario but we simply can’t justify that with the evidence we have,” Roberts said in an email. And the individuals in the Somerset site appeared to have died from trauma - not disease, according to the research. Researchers can’t tell whether the disease caused by the bacteria would have been mild or fatal, he added. The strain of Yersinia pestis found at the burial sites did not contain the gene that would enable it to spread through fleas, a trait possessed by the strain causing the pandemic known as the Black Death that later ravaged medieval Europe in the 14th century, she added.Īnd science may never truly know the severity of the plague 4,000 years ago when it came to humans, Roberts said. When it comes to the disease, there is a lot that scientists still don’t know - including how it spread, Swali said. Lee Mordechai, a senior lecturer of history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who was not involved in the study. Using genetic analysis, researchers determined that there were two distinct periods when the plague appeared in Britain: The disease emerged before or around 4,000 years ago and again about 1,500 years ago, said Dr. “These genomes can inform us of the spread and evolutionary changes of pathogens in the past, and hopefully help us understand which genes may be important in the spread of infectious diseases.” “The ability to detect ancient pathogens from degraded samples, from thousands of years ago, is incredible,” Swali said. Researchers drilled into the teeth of these ancient people and extracted dental pulp, which can trap remnants of the DNA of infectious diseases. How do researchers locate 4,000-year-old bacteria? The team took samples from the skeletal remains of 34 individuals across the two sites, according to the study. Benjamin Roberts, an associate professor of archaeology who researches later European prehistory at Durham University in the United Kingdom. “The evidence of widespread transmission across such a vast spatial area in just a few centuries is very interesting and seems to be one aspect of the rapid movement of people, technologies and ideas during this period,” said Dr. The distance between the sites suggested the disease was widespread during the late Neolithic period and the Bronze Age, Swali said. The samples of the plague-causing bacteria were found at two different mass burial sites: one in southwest England in the county of Somerset and the other in the northwestern county of Cumbria, near the border of England and Scotland. Origins of plague could have emerged centuries before outbreaks, new study suggests ![]() Courtesy McMaster University or Museum of London Archaeology
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