A new study pinpoints the first known cases of the plague that caused the Black Death, in people buried in 1338 near Lake Issyk Kul in today’s Kyrgyzstan.
The strain was closely related to ones found in rodents near Issyk Kul today. The authors suggest it spilled over to humans, perhaps from a marmot, which are abundant in the Tian Shan mountain region of northern Kyrgyzstan, southern Kazakhstan, and northwestern China. Sudden changes in rainfall or temperature could have led to surges in local rodent populations and the fleas or other insects they harbor.
The remaining mystery, he says, is how the Black Death traveled 3500 kilometers from Central Asia to the Black Sea, where historical accounts describe the Mongolian army hurling the bodies of plague victims into the besieged city of Caffa in Crimea in 1346 in an early form of biological warfare. The meticulous archaeological records for each Kyrgyzstan grave offer hints, Slavin says. Many people were buried with pearls, coins, and other goods from the Indian Ocean, the Mediterranean, and Iran; some were apparently traders. As they traveled, their camel wagons may have harbored rats and fleas, long considered likely vectors for plague.last month, suggests rats were perfectly positioned to help spread the Black Death.
Meanwhile, the Issyk Kul graveyard is giving names and identities to the first known victims of the Black Death. “To actually havefrom incredibly well dated burials is really exciting,” says bioarchaeologist Sharon De Witte of the University of South Carolina, Columbia. “We can clarify what other disease they were infected with and look at the biosocial factors that might have shaped risk of death in that first wave.
As for Slavin, he’s still marveling at the discovery. “This was one of my dreams, to solve this outstanding puzzle.”
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