DNA tests of 800-year-old gravesite in Kyrgyzstan suggest that region was source of Black Death
Based on DNA tests of several 800-year-old graves in northern Kyrgyzstan near Lake Issyk Kul, it appears that the Black Death that first appeared in Europe in the 1300s and killed as much as half its population came from this region initially.
Working with Slavin and Russian collaborators including Valeri Khartanovich of the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography, where the Issyk Kul skulls were stored, Spyrou extracted DNA from the pulp of seven individuals’ teeth and found three were infected with Y. pestis. She was able to reconstruct a high-quality genome of the ancient strain that killed them. That strain “fell exactly on the origin point of that big bang event” in the evolution of Y. pestis, Spyrou says. “That was incredibly exciting.”
The strain was closely related to ones found in rodents near Issyk Kul today. The authors suggest it spilled over to humans, perhaps from a marmot, which are abundant in the Tian Shan mountain region of northern Kyrgyzstan, southern Kazakhstan, and northwestern China.
What is fascinating most about this discovery is that we actually have the names of some of the Black Death’s first victims, read from their tombstones: ““This is the tomb of the believer Sanmaq. [He] died of pestilence.”
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Based on DNA tests of several 800-year-old graves in northern Kyrgyzstan near Lake Issyk Kul, it appears that the Black Death that first appeared in Europe in the 1300s and killed as much as half its population came from this region initially.
Working with Slavin and Russian collaborators including Valeri Khartanovich of the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography, where the Issyk Kul skulls were stored, Spyrou extracted DNA from the pulp of seven individuals’ teeth and found three were infected with Y. pestis. She was able to reconstruct a high-quality genome of the ancient strain that killed them. That strain “fell exactly on the origin point of that big bang event” in the evolution of Y. pestis, Spyrou says. “That was incredibly exciting.”
The strain was closely related to ones found in rodents near Issyk Kul today. The authors suggest it spilled over to humans, perhaps from a marmot, which are abundant in the Tian Shan mountain region of northern Kyrgyzstan, southern Kazakhstan, and northwestern China.
What is fascinating most about this discovery is that we actually have the names of some of the Black Death’s first victims, read from their tombstones: ““This is the tomb of the believer Sanmaq. [He] died of pestilence.”
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
That may be where the disease re-emerged, but it’s clearly not where plague ultimately originated — for the very simple reason that 8 centuries before plague (re-)appeared as the Black Death in mid-14th century Europe (the Mediterranean, and Asia), plague earlier had ravaged the Mediterranean region and beyond in the devastating pandemic (which lingered for centuries before receding) known as the Justinianian plague beginning in the 530’s AD. Genetic studies have shown that both pandemics were caused by the same organism.
I wonder what our descendants in the new renaissance a thousand years from now, will say about our time…. (history will be revised and written by the survivors)
Was it a flu that caused the dark age that came from Wuhan China? What is it a great cabal of world political organizations seeking to establish a “new world order” saying “destroy it all” and “burn it all down”, we will build it back better!
Or was it corporate greed combined with savior mentality of saving the earth that lead to the “Great die off” of billions…
Mad cow disease has been discovered in the vaccinations. (CJD) Prions that cause holes in the brain usually take decades to form before dementia overwhelms the person. Millions of people have neurological side effects… is it just the beginning?
https://medalerts.org/vaersdb/findfield.php?EVENTS=ON&SYMPTOMS=Creutzfeldt-Jakob_disease_%2810011384%29&VAX=COVID19&DIED=Yes
I’ve often posted about the last time they experimented on people with new untested drugs. It was called Gulf War syndrome.
I don’t know if anybody noticed, but they just recently declared the mystery illness “solved!” and pushed 20,000 to 50,000 deaths under the rug! Their claiming it was caused by the destruction of Saddam Hussein’s nerve agents.
Very few people were near these nerve agents when they were destroyed, nor did the local population have similar deaths. It also does not explain how National Guard units, that never went overseas, came down with the same illness after receiving the mandatory shots…