Origins of Black Death discovered

Studying ancient DNA samples, a team of researchers has traced the origin of the infamous pandemic to central Asia in the late 1330s


DNA taken from teeth of seven skeletons in burial sites in modern-day Kyrgyzstan reveals traces of plague bacterium, Yersinia pestis

Genomes from teeth represent single strain of disease from which many versions evolved

Yersinia pestis


SPREAD OF BLACK DEATH
Bubonic plague swept across Europe, Middle East and northern Africa, killing up to 60% of population

1347
1348
1349
1350
1351

Relatively unaffected 

Spread by maritime routes

Modern borders shown for reference

Carried from Asia in 1346


Burial sites
KAZAKHSTAN
UZB. 
TAJIKISTAN
Kara-Djigach 
Burana
Bishkek
KYRGYZSTAN 
Lake Issyk-Kul
CHINA
100km 60 miles


Two cemeteries, at Kara-Djigach and Burana, found to have disproportionately high number of burials from 1338 to 1339, with some tombstones – such as that of “the believer Sanmaq” (right) – giving cause of death as “pestilence”


Sources: Nature, Max Planck Institute, University of Stirling, Encyclopaedia Britannica
Pictures: A.S. Leybin, August 1886; Rocky Mountain Laboratories, NIAID, NIH 
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