The source of the Black Death in fourteenth-century central Eurasia

Abstract

The origin of the medieval Black Death pandemic (ad 1346–1353) has been a topic of continuous investigation because of the pandemic’s extensive demographic impact and long-lasting consequences1,2. Until now, the most debated archaeological evidence potentially associated with the pandemic’s initiation derives from cemeteries located near Lake Issyk-Kul of modern-day Kyrgyzstan1,3–9. These sites are thought to have housed victims of a fourteenth-century epidemic as tombstone inscriptions directly dated to 1338–1339 state ‘pestilence’ as the cause of death for the buried individuals9. Here we report ancient DNA data from seven individuals exhumed from two of these cemeteries, Kara-Djigach and Burana. Our synthesis of archaeological, historical and ancient genomic data shows a clear involvement of the plague bacterium Yersinia pestis in this epidemic event. Two reconstructed ancient Y. pestis genomes represent a single strain and are identified as the most recent common ancestor of a major diversification commonly associated with the pandemic’s emergence, here dated to the first half of the fourteenth century. Comparisons with present-day diversity from Y. pestis reservoirs in the extended Tian Shan region support a local emergence of the recovered ancient strain. Through multiple lines of evidence, our data support an early fourteenth-century source of the second plague pandemic in central Eurasia.

Historic and Prehistoric Epidemics: An Overview of Sources Available for the Study of Ancient Pathogens

“…In a plethora of other studies, teeth and bone samples from putative 14 th -18 th plague "pits" in many locations in Eurasia have been confirmed to contain Y. pestis DNA [7,[43][44][45][46][47]. From the 17 th century onwards, direct written evidence for plague epidemics and dedicated graveyards is common [7,43,47]. Retrieval of Y. pestis DNA from victims of earlier epidemics, such as the 6 th century 'Justinian plague', also relied on evidence for local mortality crises, such as when a "striking number" of double and multiple burials was seen in a grave-yard in Bavaria, Germany, collective burials were found in Valencia, Spain, and an existing ditch was used as an emergency cemetery near Bourges in France [48,49].…”

“…The remains were also used to investigate genetic variation of the victims [28]. In a plethora of other studies, teeth and bone samples from putative 14 th -18 th plague "pits" in many locations in Eurasia have been confirmed to contain Y. pestis DNA [7,[43][44][45][46][47]. From the 17 th century onwards, direct written evidence for plague epidemics and dedicated graveyards is common [7,43,47].…”

“…For instance, the acquisition of virulence factors plays an important role in the evolution of Y. pestis, developments which have been retraced helped by ancient pathogen DNA studies. Investigation of bacterial genomes from various archeological sites showed the common ancestor of historic and current Black Death-causing Y. pestis strain originates from 14 th century Central Asia, in what is now Kyrgyzstan [7]. Around 1338-1339 CE, there, a lowcomplexity variant equipped with a few extra virulence factors, as compared to its Neolithic predecessors, entered human society, never to leave again [7,43,50,51,104].…”

“…When many die around the same time, people are either carefully buried together in a same grave, or bodies are hastily thrown into quickly dug graves. Likewise, since historic times, our ancestors have put pen to paper to describe epidemics affecting society, for instance, the ancient Greek described the multiple plagues of their times, while an inscription of the local word for pestilence on 1338-1339 CE century tomb stones, in what is now Kyrgyzstan, pointed to the likelihood of plague victims being buried there [7]. Another example can be found in the relatively accurate descriptions of a smallpox-like disease can be found in Chinese texts dating to the Sui and Tang dynasties, 581-907 CE [8].…”

La paleomicrobiología molecular permite dilucidar el origen de la plaga

“…En dos artículos publicados este año se investiga el origen de la bacteria (Andrades-Valtueña et al, 2022) y la localización geográfica del origen de la segunda pandemia de peste bubónica (Spyrou et al, 2022). Dichos estudios fueron posibles gracias a la identificación de genomas de Y. pestis en la pulpa dental (sitio anatómico en que mejor se conserva el ADN) de restos humanos con cientos y miles de años de antigüedad encontrados en cementerios de diferentes regiones de Asia y Europa.…”