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Bubonic Plague Traced To Ancient Egypt (Black Death)
National Geographic News ^
| 3-10-2004
| Cameron Walker
Posted on 03/11/2004 3:40:50 PM PST by blam
click here to read article
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1
posted on
03/11/2004 3:40:51 PM PST
by
blam
To: farmfriend
Ping.
2
posted on
03/11/2004 3:41:20 PM PST
by
blam
To: blam
AQ's Winds of Black Death. Time to stock up on Hartz Tick and Flea dog shampoo.
3
posted on
03/11/2004 3:51:08 PM PST
by
mtbopfuyn
To: blam
We have plague here in California in squirrels in parks. Never, never touch a wild squirrel! Every year they find more.
4
posted on
03/11/2004 3:55:04 PM PST
by
EggsAckley
(..................IGNORE the trolls...................it drives them crazy)
To: blam
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.
5
posted on
03/11/2004 4:06:33 PM PST
by
lizma
To: lizma
"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.
6
posted on
03/11/2004 4:23:01 PM PST
by
blam
To: blam
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.
7
posted on
03/11/2004 4:29:35 PM PST
by
middie
To: blam
Eva Panagiotakopulu By the time you've pronounced her name, another dynasty has passed.
8
posted on
03/11/2004 4:53:28 PM PST
by
IronJack
To: blam; *Gods, Graves, Glyphs; A.J.Armitage; abner; adam_az; AdmSmith; Alas Babylon!; ...
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.
9
posted on
03/11/2004 4:55:23 PM PST
by
farmfriend
( Isaiah 55:10,11)
To: blam
Question? What is the oldest specimen where DNA has been able to be extracted? And under what conditions?
10
posted on
03/11/2004 5:05:39 PM PST
by
lizma
To: lizma
"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)
11
posted on
03/11/2004 5:12:19 PM PST
by
blam
To: blam
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.
To: middie
Europeon cities were filthy in 1349. I can't imagine the smells that they put up with.
To: Burkeman1
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!
.
15
posted on
03/11/2004 5:22:44 PM PST
by
Mo1
(Do you want a president who injects poison into his skull for vanity?)
To: lizma
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.
16
posted on
03/11/2004 5:22:57 PM PST
by
blam
Comment #17 Removed by Moderator
To: SoCal Pubbie
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.
To: SoCal Pubbie
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.
To: lizma
20
posted on
03/11/2004 5:31:06 PM PST
by
blam
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