By: Andrew Xiao

On June 15th, 2022, a group of researchers published their findings on the origin of the Black Death – a topic of continuous historical investigation – in the scientific journal Nature, conducting in-depth analysis and research on the DNA in the teeth of corpses near modern-day Kyrgyzstan. Wolfgang Haak, Johannes Krause, and Philip Slavin report that the bacterium responsible for the Black Death – namely Yersinia pestis – first infected a small group of traders near Lake Issyk-Kul, in a mountainous area west of China. Y. pestis then spread to Europe and Asia, killing 60% of the population and causing arguably the deadliest epidemic in human history. If their theory proves accurate, then the Black Death most likely spread to Europe and Asia through trade routes but not military actions, which some historians have proposed. Y. pestis – called the Black Death for causing black spots on a victim’s skin – spreads by using flies that live on rodents. The disease still exists today, albeit much less disastrous compared to the 14th century, since better hygiene and antibiotics have massively reduced the risk of death in the case of an infection. When the Black Death approached London, they prepared a graveyard in advance for expected plague-related deaths. That proved exceptionally fortunate for historians looking at Y. Pestis, as the graves had dates and only people who died of the plague. Later, after researchers compiled data from multiple plague victims, they realized that Y. Pestis abruptly split into four strains, calling this event the “Big Bang.” Since then, researchers have been hunting where and when this “Big Bang” occurred. This study serves as a crucial clue to the details of this event. The unusually many large numbers of graves around the previously mentioned area of people that died in 1338 – “just seven or eight years before the Black Death came to Europe,” according to Dr. Slavin (one of the researchers in the study) -– provides more clarity. Also, note that many in the tombs died of “pestilence” (a fatal epidemic disease). His group of researchers also found plague DNA on the teeth of these individuals, noting that the flies on the rodents there (specifically marmots) harbor a strain of Y. pestis that seems directly related to the original one before the “Big Bang.” Although many historians hold different theories for how this research plays a part in unlocking the secrets of the origins of the Black Plague, no one can dispute that this research plays an influential role in finally discovering the truth regarding Y. pestis and the Black Plague. As Monica H. Green, an independent scholar not involved in the paper, mentioned, their work “puts a pin in the map, with a date.”