[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.

[lizma]

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

[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.

[Sabertooth]

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

Cocaine and nicotine?

Aren't the coca (Erythroxylum coca) and tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) plants indigenous to the New World?