The Black Death is one of the most horrifying events in history. The plague swept through Europe and the Mediterranean from 1346 to 1353. It is the most fatal pandemic known in history, killing from 75 to 200 million people. The Black Death was caused by the bacteria Yersinia pestis, which causes a disease called bubonic plague. The symptoms of the plague are chills, fever, and most importants boils and swellings that pop up on an infected person’s body.
It was originally believed that the plague originated among the Mongols. An account of the Mongol Golden Horde’s invasion of the Crimea peninsula tells how after a prolonged and weakening siege at the city of Kaffa in 1346, the Mongols catapulted their dead across the city walls, spreading the disease inside the city and ensuring its doom. Later, after the Mongols were driven back, the town resumed its daily life normally. It was thought that Genoese ships carried what remained of the plague on fleas infecting rats back to Europe.
However, an interesting revelations turns this story upside-down. It turns out that plague bacteria can be identified in teeth from skeletons infected with the disease, and three samples of dead teeth from England showed a very interesting thing. Plague was like a tree with a trunk, that split off into four main branches. To find where and when the disease originated, one simply had to trace the ancestral strain of the plague.
This was done in Kyrgyzstan, where skeletons were found in graves that marked them as dying of ‘pestilence’, an ancient name for Bubonic plague. Ancestral strains of the plague were recovered from the skeletons and the remains were dated to 1338, around seven or eight years before the Plague hit Europe. It’s possible that the Mongols picked the plague up on their way to Kaffa, or that it spread through trading. The exact details are a mystery. In addition, one thing to think about is that this scenario might play out with COVID-19. Right now, the exact origins of the virus are a bit shady and nobody knows how it came about. However, scientific evidence might reveal this mystery centuries later (that is, if we’re around then).
Anay Ganesh 