Black Death’s ancient origins traced to lake in Central Asia
- Researchers pinpoint source to a region of Kyrgyzstan, after analysing DNA from remains at an ancient burial site
- Scientists have spent centuries debating the source of the Black Death that killed tens of millions in the 14th century
Scientists in Europe say they have pinpointed the origins of the Black Death, a bacterial plague that wiped out half of the continent’s population in the 14th century.
The findings counter other theories that the disease – which caused repeated outbreaks into the early 19th century and also left its mark across the Middle East and North Africa – might have first emerged in China.
Drawing on the work of historian Phil Slavin from the University of Stirling in Scotland, who had suggested the disease’s emergence might be linked to an unusual surge of deaths in a town in Central Asia in 1338-1339, researchers examined DNA from bodies found there.
They found genetic fingerprints of the bacterium Yersinia pestis in individuals who had been buried with tombstones referring to a “pestilence” at the site by Lake Issyk Kul in the foothills of the Tian Shan mountains, in what is now Kyrgyzstan.
In an article published Wednesday in the journal Nature, the researchers detail how the fingerprint reveals the strain that devastated the ancient trading community at Issyk Kul was the precursor to many others which emerged around the time.
“We found that the ancient strains from Kyrgyzstan are positioned exactly at the node of this massive diversification event,” said Maria Spyrou, a researcher on disease history at the University of Tuebingen in Germany and lead author of the report.