By: Amy Liu

One of the biggest tragedies in history – the Black Death – is also very mysterious in how it

originated. Some say that it came from rats and fleas, but now, scientists may have finally found

an answer, if not, a huge clue that could greatly affect how we take on the plague.

Scientists have discovered that the plague was at first found in an area near IssykKul, in the 13th century, where it infected the farmers of China, before killing more than half of

the population. The black death that we know today is infected in Europe. According to scientific

findings, it is caused by a bacteria called Yersinia pestis, carried by fleas and spread by mice.

There is also a DNA family tree that scientists and researchers built that seemed to explode into

four branches of Y pestis strains. Most scientists called this event the big bang.

However, it may not be the Y pestis that caused the plague. More recent studies have actually

shown hints of plague in London graveyards. There are many graveyards in London, but one

certain one had tombstones with dates actually carved in the stone, and the dates are accurate as

well. Most of them are dating back to 1338, which is actually 7-8 years before the plague came

to London.

The tombstones usually show that this person died of “pestilence”. Scientists have then studied

the bodies in the tombs and their DNA, and the results seem to show that many of them have the

plague DNA and that the big bang actually happened before the Black Death in Eurasia. This

proves that the plague spread through trade routes.

Dr. Green, one of the scientists researching the plague, has said that the work so far has

been very useful. She describes it as something that “puts a pin in the map, with a date”