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.”
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
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.”
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
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…