Scientists say they have discovered the origin of the Black Death, one of the deadliest plagues that killed 200 million people nearly 700 years ago. This surprising information has been published in the journal Nature by the University of Stirling in Scotland, the Max Blanc Institute in Germany and the University of Dubingen.
An article in the journal of the study said, “The bacteria that first spread the Black Death epidemic have been found in three tombs in modern-day Kyrgyzstan, Central Asia. During the study, Dr. Philip Slavin, a historian at the University of Stirling, discovered three tombs in 1338 and 1339 in the Sue Valley near Lake Isik Gul.
Following that, researchers recovered the first DNA traces of the Yersinia pestis plague bacteria from the teeth of three women buried in the Nestorian Christian community in those three graves. When the DNA was examined, it was discovered that the virus’s gene had “rebuilt itself” and caused the Black Death infection, and that the gene was responsible for most of the plague that exists today. “
Maria Spiro, archaeologist and author of the University of Dubingen in Germany, said, ‘The Bubonic plague spread across the Mediterranean via the Old Silk Road trade route. Because of the wave of deadly diseases that lasted for 500 years before that, it became known as the Second Plague. The study revealed that trade was initially a major factor in the spread of plague in Europe.