Ancient mass grave unearthed at Italian gallery thought to contain dozens of plague victims

National Post ^ | February 12, 2014

[Squawk 8888]

Work to expand the Uffizi Gallery’s exhibit space has unearthed an ancient cemetery with dozens of skeletons archaeologists say might have been victims of the plague or some other epidemic that swept through Florence during the 4th or 5th century.

Archaeologists and art officials showed reporters Wednesday the excavation at the renowned museum. In five months of digging, archaeologists uncovered 60 well-preserved skeletons in a cemetery apparently made in a hurry, perhaps a mass grave, with bodies laid side-by-side at roughly the same time.

[Squawk 8888]

[Squawk 8888]

GGG ping.

[GeronL]

oh great, now they are uncovering the plague and we’re all gonna die

[IllumiNaughtyByNature]

That was my thought, along with “this is a great plot for a B horror movie.”

[GeronL]

Then we need a Plague-nado ping

[JRandomFreeper]

Nah. There is plenty of plague alive in New Mexico. They get a couple of cases a year transmitted to humans.

/johnny

[IllumiNaughtyByNature]

Plague-nado

This.

[GeronL]

bump

[moose07]

Rest in peace.
Or until some **** with a trowel decides otherwise.

[Squawk 8888]

To be fair, some of the best information about the past, especially about daily life in ancient times, comes from graveyards and garbage dumps.

[moose07]

Agreed, I wouldn’t have a problem with it if they returned ‘you’ to site when the investigation is complete, they don’t.
Museum store rooms are full of bones from digs, some dating back decades.

[Alas Babylon!]

Or in this case, centuries...

[tet68]

Headline: Mysterious malady plagues Archaeologists,
art officials and reporters in Italy. Officials
reluctant to say source of deadly virus...

[ptsal]

Looks more like the last Californian paying taxes....

[tet68]

Those two at the bottom of the picture look happy
though, bunch of kidders.

[MattinNJ]

That’s funny.

[moose07]

Had a feeling my dialect would cause a problem. :)
The bones have been stored for decades, regardless of age.
To clarify, just in case. :)

[GeronL]

*facepalm*

They have just excavated the original “Pirates of the Caribbean” set....

[ElkGroveDan]

Most of us are far less vulnerable to the plague than the Europeans it killed in the middle ages — natural selection does wonders for cleaning out the gene pool.

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