Posted on 08/01/2007 2:00:38 PM PDT by blam
Black Death casts a genetic shadow over England
12:26 01 August 2007
NewScientist.com news service
Colin Barras
Black Death as illustrated in a 15th century bible
The Black Death continues to cast a shadow across England. Although the modern English population is more cosmopolitan than ever, the plagues known as the Black Death killed so many people in the Middle Ages that, to this day, genetic diversity is lower in England than it was in the 11th century, according to a new analysis.
Rus Hoelzel at the University of Durham, UK and his colleagues looked at the mitochondrial DNA from human remains at 4th and 11th century archaeological sites in England, and compared them to samples from the modern population stored on DNA databases such as GenBank. They found there was more variation in the ancient mitochondrial DNA sequences than in modern sequences.
Hoelzel thinks random genetic drift may have lowered genetic diversity naturally. But the large unexpected drop in diversity was more likely to have been caused by population crashes following major outbreaks of the Black Death in England during the 1340s and the 1660s.
"The main factors in support of a role for plague are the timing and the fact that it affected different families [to a differing degree]," says Hoelzel.
Vulnerable families
The Black Death did not reach England until the mid-14th century. No-one knows exactly what caused it, with the bubonic plague bacterium Yersinia pestis, and various viruses all having been implicated at some point.
However, it is known that plague affected some families more than others, so their mitochondrial DNA would have been less common among survivors, Hoelzel says.
"I'm not at all surprised with the result," says Susan Scott at the University of Liverpool, UK. "We're talking about one of the worst disasters humans
(Excerpt) Read more at newscientist.com ...
GGG Ping.
“Bring out your dead!”
bookmark
It’d also be interesting to check out the same with cholera outbreaks.
They need to worry about the coming “Green Death”...
"The epidemic of cocoliztli from1545 to 1548 killed an estimated 5 million to 15 million people, or up to 80% of the native population of Mexico (Figure 1). In absolute and relative terms the 1545 epidemic was one of the worst demographic catastrophes in human history, approaching even the Black Death of bubonic plague, which killed approximately 25 million in western Europe from 1347 to 1351 or about 50% of the regional population."
"The cocoliztli epidemic from 1576 to 1578 cocoliztli epidemic killed an additional 2 to 2.5 million people, or about 50% of the remaining native population.
PING
“I’m not dead...”
“Throughout the recent past, there have been movements from the Middle East into southern Europe, and the Middle East population retains a great mix and diversity,” he says.
you know what this means. “ok folks we have to keep letting them in. Don’t want black death, you see?”
Lucky they didn’t have Rachel Carson walking around in 1340 to outlaw rat traps....
ok I misspoke! less genetic diversity didn’t result in the black death but it could lead to other problems
Thanks for posting!
Good read on this era is A Distant Mirror by Barbara Tuchman.
it’s true ,look at Dodi and Princess Diana
Especially when you consider thats its likely any island population will at large be less diversified than a much larger free ranging population. I’m certain that Japan, Iceland, Greenland, Nova Scotia, Australia and nearly every island dwelling populace will show similar trends.
“Good read on this era is A Distant Mirror by Barbara Tuchman.”
Read it, great book. I like Tuchman.
I’m thinking that the slaughter of young men in WWI would not have helped. On the other hand, maybe the influx of American GIs in WWII helped the diversity of the gene pool. :)
Don’t forget the Normans creating the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. They brought lots of Scandinavian and French blood to Sicily.
Ring around the rosey,......Typical description of a buboe.
a pocket full of poseys,....Nosegays of flowers were carried
ashes, ashes,...............to cover the smell of death.
we all fall down............The bodies were burned, all die.
I just love nursery rhymes, don’t you?
I’d of thought it had to do with WW I and the loss of a great percentage of men of marrying age at the time.
Australia has a relatively 'diverse' population.
“The epidemic of cocoliztli from1545 to 1548 killed an estimated 5 million to 15 million people, or up to 80% of the native population of Mexico (Figure 1).”
Recently saw Mel Gibson’s “Apocalypto” which was an interesting flick. Greatly exceeded my expectations.
This portrayed a time when if some plague didn’t get you, the Aztecs might turn you into a human sacrifice.
In the 1890s my grandfather’s family was trimmed from 7 to 4 children, by diptheria. Two gone over one weekend. Apparently gargling with kerosene was a treatment. That in Dakota Territory.
Somehow most people, in most societies survive.
It is a great book. She points out that they were Europeans, but many parts of their culture wouldn’t be recognized by Europeans today, such as the fun game of nailing a cat, legs out, to a door, and then taking turns trying to kill it with head butts. Let’s see today’s yutes do that!
Maybe this explains England’s suicidal approach to islamic whacko immigrants, and socialist decay.
well, I think it’s only common sense that the Black Death resulted in less diversified mtDNA. If they looked also at the yDNA I think they may find a similar pattern.
As for how it began? Who knows, all I remember is that it was spread by the rat population, and it wasn’t picky about who got sick.
Yes, it could result in the state of West Virginia...........How else do you explain Robert Byrd?........
Does this explain the national dental problem?
yup. what shall it be? a nation of inbreds or islamofascists? not a pleasant situation to be in
This one scientist said that a gene from survivors was passed on to their descendant, had an immunity to HIV and AIDS.
Guns of August about the prelude and start of WWI was also good.
Tuchman’s grandfather was ambassador to Turkey under Woodrow Wilson.
This, incidentally, has nothing to do with the Spanish presence. The Spanish were largely spared because they were very aggressive against rodents (this was a rodent borne disease) and did not permit them in their homes.
The native population, on the other hand, seemed to have rodents all over the place, to the extent that the Spanish even commented on it in letters they sent home. The connection between various plagues and rodents was of course not known at the time.
Many Spaniards died of the Black Death, though. Moorish realization that the plague was more prevalent in urban centers led to many of them fleeing Iberia for Morocco. This depopulation of Muslim Spaniards made it easier for the Christians to finally expel the Moors in the Reconquista (which culminated in 1492).
The pro leagues have taken all the fun out of the sport with too many rules and too much safety equipment. Just the safety goggles alone take out half the fun when a cat gets a paw loose.
The Gallegos (northern Spaniards) used to build their graneries on stilts, which were then oiled, which served to keep the rats (and the plague) out of the local food supply.
‘Ere, he says he’s not dead.
I feel happy!
The first mention of my family in the Cotswalds area of Gloustershire was in 1278, I have the genealogy and if anyone is doing a study I might be interested.
Yes, the Spanish definitely did die of plague. Some of it was spread along the Camino de Santiago, unfortunately, by flea-infested pilgrims. The French were blamed for it.
Foreigners were often blamed for the plague, partly because plague was often found in urban (particularly seaport) areas where foreigners were common. But of course, rats were also common in these areas...
Actually, if one pays close attention, this action can be observed portrayed at least in a couple other scenes. I believe that it is not a superfluous part of the scene. If so, then why repeat it at risk of it being noticed?
I once pulled out all the books in the library pertaining to accounts of the Black Death at the library and spent the better part of the day going through them. Talk about bleak, dreary and dismal days, makes hopelessness look positively bright. These people had not a clue about what was going on, all that they knew was that they were in a pretty bad way.
The accounts I read described a rather disconcerting and unsettling experience: wailing of anguish, constant ringing of church bells, the stench of decay, the smoke of burning flesh, the symptoms and signs of the onset and progress of the disease, whole families succumbing, etc. Quite horrifying from a modern perspective in contemplation of having to live through as a matter of course.
Case in point were the reports of the cannibalism of infants by the peasants. While not very well documented, many reports of it exist. I was reading about various scholar's rationalization of such in the sense that during the height of the plague there was famine. What little food they did produce the sovereigns seized (leaving many of their feudal tenants with virtually nothing/I>. Its speculated that many had to resort to cannibalism of their infants in that the infants were absolutely not productive.
One has to keep in mind what life was like for the average person back then. Life was extremely hard. The summer was one mad dash to get enough provisions stocked up to make it through the winter. Probably the alleged cannibalism occurred most often during the harshest and darkest period of winter. Combine that with the psychosis attributable to ergot amine poisoning and chronic malnutrition, self-preservation would only instill a sort of "Donner party-mentality".
Boy I'm glad we don't have to deal with that any more. What a glorious thing it is to be "civilized" nowadays, eh? What, with flushing toilets, running water, "free" health-care, drugs based on scientific principles (not the efficacy of Gregorian chants to chase away the evil spirits). I believe that each and every Thanksgiving holiday, we should give extremely sincere and most humble thanks to whatever power that one may believe exists (whether one believe that pure chance, or supernatural deity rules the universe) that we all have lived our lives during present times rather than any other.
“Bring out your dead!”
Beat me!
I agree, excellent book.
I read that book in 1978, a great book that follows the Coucy family throughout the period.
I remember reading that some villages/areas in Europe were free or relatively free of the plague.
It was speculated that some immunization gene within the rather inbred communities might have protectd them.
Same with the flowers...they hoped that the scent would, somehow, help purify the air.
The nose cone on the doctors' funny suits...
...would be filled with flowers to this end.
The black rats carried the fleas which carried the disease; but a more advanced form--pneumonic--did travel in the sputum of the ill.
Appreciated.
bookmark!
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