Bubonic Plague Traced To Ancient Egypt (Black Death)

National Geographic News ^ | 3-10-2004 | Cameron Walker

[blam]

Ping.

[mtbopfuyn]

AQ's Winds of Black Death. Time to stock up on Hartz Tick and Flea dog shampoo.

[EggsAckley]

We have plague here in California in squirrels in parks. Never, never touch a wild squirrel! Every year they find more.

[lizma]

This theory has been batted around for awhile, along with the theory small pox may have originated in Egypt also.

DNA evidence of Yersina pestis has been found in the teeth of some of the Middle Age's Black Death victims. It will be interesting (if it's possible????) to see if plague DNA shows up in any Egyptian remains.

[blam]

"It will be interesting (if it's possible????) to see if plague DNA shows up in any Egyptian remains."

I expect they'll look. Afterall, they've already found cocaine and nicotine in the most ancient Egyptian mummies.

[middie]

On a recent airline trip I happened to sit next to a scientist who investigates the plague for a large university medical school (he was a research and teaching physician). He advanced the theory that it would be highly unlikely, in fact, almost impossible, for the plague to gain any foothold in the U.S., Japan or Western Europe today because of the frequency with which today's societies showers or bathes with soap and hot water. The antibacterial effect of bath soap would deter the growth and be a hostile environment for the bug that causes the symptoms and sequence of the disease.

[IronJack]

Eva Panagiotakopulu

By the time you've pronounced her name, another dynasty has passed.

[farmfriend]

Gods, Graves, Glyphs
List for articles regarding early civilizations , life of all forms, - dinosaurs - etc.
Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from this ping list.

[lizma]

Question? What is the oldest specimen where DNA has been able to be extracted? And under what conditions?

[blam]

"Question? What is the oldest specimen where DNA has been able to be extracted? And under what conditions?"

I believe I read that DNA was extracted from a 224 million year old bacteria that was trapped inside a salt crystal. (I'll look and post on it if I find anything)

[Burkeman1]

Some recent scholarship on the Great Plaugue posits that it was actually two plagues aperating simultaneously. One was the traditonal bubonic plauge spread by flea bites or another infected person. The other is as yet unknown but some suspect a deadly flu virus. Two types of symptons have repeatedly been talked mentioned by primary sources- one is the bubous swelling, black oozing pus symptons and the other is a bubous free fierce fever that dehydrated the body and could kill in as little as 24 hours.

[Burkeman1]

Europeon cities were filthy in 1349. I can't imagine the smells that they put up with.

[SoCal Pubbie]

I read a bit about these new theories. Another possible explanation is anthrax. Indeed tests done on areas where black death victims were buried in mass graves in England produced anthrax spores. Some still living, I think!

[Mo1]

.

[blam]

This is all I found.

Thirty Million-Year Sleep: Germ Is Declared Alive!

There were much older spores waiting to be revived. On May 19, 1995, The New York Times carried a front-page story about them (4). Biologists Raul Cano and Monica Borucki had extracted bacterial spores from bees preserved in amber in Costa Rica. Amber is tree-sap that hardens and persists as a fossil.
This amber had entrapped some bees and then hardened between 25 and 40 million years ago.
Bacteria living in the bees' digestive tracts had recognized a problem and turned themselves into spores. When placed in a suitable culture, the spores came right back to life.

As a control, the two biologists also attempted to culture from the same amber a number of samples that contained no bee parts. These cultures were negative, adding credibility to the experiment. This finding was originally reported in the journal Science (5) to general acceptance.

[Burkeman1]

Yes- Anthrax may also been a third cause of death but that theory is limited to England. But England suffered worse than did the continent so I can see three biological germs killing people in England very easily. They lost upwards of a full 3rd of their population. Before the plague the Population of England and Wales was 6 million. It wouldn't reach that level again until 1750.

[Burkeman1]

Ironically- that England suffered even worse in the Black Death than did the rest of Europe is the reason why surfdom and Feudalism died more quickly and a substantial class of free yoeman peasenty arose. With far fewer hands available to work the fields- serfs found they could easily demand concessions and greater freedoms from their lords as labor was scarce. The price of labor shot up in England and in Wales. Eventually lords had to even sell some of their vast estates to productive serfs.

[blam]

Here's the one I think I was thinking about...no mention of DNA though

It's Alive! A 250-Million-Year-Old Bacterium Found In Salt Crystal