According to The Guardian, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, have claimed to have solved a nearly 700-year-old mystery regarding the origins of the Black Death – the deadliest pandemic in history. The term “Black Death” is used to describe the impact that the plague pandemic had on countries in Europe, Asia, and North Africa during the mid-14th century.
Origins in Central Asia
At least tens of millions of people died as the plague ravaged across continents. The cause was previously believed to be a virus spreading along trade routes. Despite intense efforts to uncover the origins of this outbreak wave, for hundreds of years, scant evidence left this question unresolved.
However, just days ago, a team of experts in Germany successfully decoded the secret behind the origins of the deadliest pandemic on the planet. This discovery was published in the journal Nature on June 15.
Plague bacteria taken from a patient in 2003. (Photo: AFP).
Professor Johannes Krause from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig stated: “Essentially, we have identified the origin, time, and space of the outbreak that occurred 700 years ago. We have not only found the ancestor of the Black Death but also the ancestor of most plague strains currently spreading across the world.”
Historian Philip Slavin from the University of Stirling in Scotland, a co-author, remarked: “Our findings indicate that the Black Death originated in Central Asia in the 1330s and spread to multiple continents.” They asserted this after discovering evidence of a significant increase in mortality rates in the late 1330s at two cemeteries near Lake Issyk-Kul, in what is now eastern Kyrgyzstan.
The team found ancient DNA traces of the Yersinia pestis plague bacterium from the teeth of three women buried in a cemetery in the Chüy Valley, near Lake Issyk-Kul, at the foot of the Tian Shan Mountains. These individuals died in 1338-1339. The earliest recorded deaths elsewhere during the pandemic were in 1346.
Discovering the Origins of Most Plague Today
According to Reuters, the reconstruction of the pathogen’s genome shows that this strain of bacteria not only gave rise to the bacteria that caused the Black Death in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa but is also the source of most plague strains that exist today.
Inscription on this stone stele is written in Syriac, meaning: “This is the tomb of the believer Sanmaq. He died of the plague.” (Photo: AS Leybin).
Among the 467 gravestones dated from 1248 to 1345, Professor Slavin noted a spike in deaths during the years 1338-1339, with 118 gravestones. Inscriptions on some gravestones referred to the cause of death as “mawtānā,” a Syriac term meaning “plague.”
Further research indicated sites excavated in the late 1880s, with around 30 skeletons removed from their graves. After examining excavation logs, Professor Slavin and colleagues identified several remains, linking them to specific gravestones at various cemeteries.
These samples were then sent to ancient DNA expert Dr. Krause and Dr. Maria Spyrou at the University of Tübingen, Germany. They extracted genetic material from the teeth of seven individuals buried in the cemeteries. Three of these contained DNA from Yersinia pestis, the bacterium that causes plague.
A comprehensive analysis of the bacterial genome showed it to be a direct ancestor of the strain that caused the Black Death in Europe. From this, they concluded that these individuals were carriers of the pathogen responsible for the deaths of over 50% of the continent’s population thereafter.
According to the expert team, the closest living relatives of the plague strain that caused the Black Death have been found in rodent species in the same region.
The Black Death is the deadliest pandemic recorded in history. Professor Slavin noted that it killed 50-60% of the population in Western Europe and 50% in the Middle East, amounting to approximately 50-60 million deaths. Notably, the death toll in the Caucasus, Iran, and Central Asia was nearly “incalculable.”
According to the World Health Organization, 3,248 cases were reported worldwide from 2010 to 2015, resulting in 584 deaths. The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Madagascar, and Peru were the most heavily affected countries.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), people typically contract the plague or septicemia after being bitten by fleas carrying this bacterium. We can also become infected through contact with infected animals.
