Posted on 01/08/2025 11:52:55 AM PST by SunkenCiv
The new study, led by Kirsten Bos and Johannes Krause of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, analyzed ancient DNA from skeletal remains in Mexico, Peru, Argentina, and Chile. Using state-of-the-art paleopathology techniques, the researchers reconstructed five genomes of Treponema pallidum, the bacterium responsible for syphilis and its related diseases, yaws and bejel. These genomes date back as far as 9,000 years, predating Columbus's voyages.
"We've known for some time that syphilis-like infections occurred in the Americas for millennia, but from the lesions alone, it's impossible to fully characterize the disease," explained Casey Kirkpatrick, a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute. The genomic analysis revealed that T. pallidum originated in the Americas during the middle Holocene epoch and subsequently diversified into the subspecies responsible for treponemal diseases today.
Dr. Kirsten Bos stated: "The data clearly support a root in the Americas for syphilis and its known relatives. Their introduction to Europe, which started in the late 15th century, is most consistent with the evidence." The study further suggests that the global spread of syphilis was facilitated by transatlantic human trafficking and European colonial expansions.
(Excerpt) Read more at archaeologymag.com ...
I’m pretty certain that’s not where I got my syphilis fro...
Wait, never mind.
And one suspects some of the Basque and Scandinavian fishermen who fished for cod near Canada for a century or two before Columbus might have picked up a case or two by stopping on land and visiting local gals.
But it might have spread quickly after Columbus because some of his sailors went home and visited brothels... indeed, the reason the military docs worry about STDs is because one army of mercenaries caught it in Naples in 1495 and were decimated.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamadermatology/article-abstract/551203
Hogwash!
Virgins on their wedding day who are faithful for life have lower occurrence of STDs.
You sound like my wife talking about tobacco. LOL.
(Born on reservation Mescalero Apache with some Comanche she doesn’t talk about. Well, except when we get royalty checks from drilling in OK.)
If we hadn’t met in kindergarten, I’m not sure how she would have ended up with this 6’7” Scot Irish Norse guy.
its old news
Columbus brought gonorrea
he brought back syphilis
Was syphilis a zoonotic disease?
I once read that the syphilis was an animal disease that crossed to humans as a result of bestiality in the New World.
“Flies spread disease, so keep yours closed!”
Exactly!
I’ve never really thought too much about the origins of VD, but that makes sense.
The original Moctezuma’s Revenge.
The evidence has been out there for a long time that syphilis originated in the New World and first appeared in Europe after Columbus and his men returned from Columbus’ first voyage. But some people have denied it because they thought that the truth would besmirch the reputation of the indigenous Americans. The Indians had had it for a long time but had milder cases.
Europeans traded diseases with the Indians. Smallpox for syphilis.
Besmirch the reputation of the indigenous Americans? How so? Millions of them died from small pox, so they say. Neither the small pox or syphilis epidemics were intentional, however. They didn’t even know about viruses or bacteria until the invention of the microscope many years later.
Good stuff... This was always considered to be the case, but then the ‘woke crowd’ came up with an ‘alternative’, but obviously incorrect theory that syphilis had always existed in Europe, Africa and Asia.
It didn’t.
The Spaniards took all the gold, and the indigenous peoples passed on their syphilis, which was likely prevalent due to the promiscuous sexual activities of stone aged peoples.
Thanks to DNA, we have solved that nonsense.
“I thought syphilis had been found among the ancient Romans...”
Many believe it pre-dates that also. Back before they could treat it, or fully identify it, it has been determined that a lot of it was mis-identfied as leprosy or a plague. Same symptoms, same way it could be passed, and an ultimate nasty death. But that also was before the time of Christ.
In 1997, a 4,000 year-old skeleton was uncovered in India that was found to show traces of leprosy. The discovery was made at a site called Balathal, which is today part of Rajasthan. This is believed to be the oldest known physical case of the disease. Or was it the disease?
wy69
I dug into this issue in college in 1966. At that time there was an Arabic medical paper from North Africa that predated Columbus by a hundred years or so that listed symptoms identical to syphilis. Beyond the symptoms, it listed doses of mercury as the cure. In 1966, there were no other known STDs that responded to, much less cured by mercury.
The mercury cure distinguished the Arab-described disease from the similar descriptions by Romans. They were proba ly the same disease, the Romans just didn’t mention a mercury cure.
One of the first things that occurred to me.
Really good show. Among the best things Emily Blunt has done, IMO.
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