Infected mummy from Egypt: scientists find DNA of deadly disease that killed millions
The oldest plague DNA outside of Eurasia has been found in an ancient Egyptian mummy. The remains, which belonged to a man who was already suffering from severe symptoms of the Black Death at the time of his death, are 3290 years old.
The bubonic plague, known as the Black Death, caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, reached its highest prevalence in the fourteenth century, when it claimed millions of lives in Europe. This is reported by IFlScience.
However, recently, scientists have begun to find the DNA of this bacterium in prehistoric remains, indicating that the disease circulated for thousands of years before the European pandemic.
Until now, ancient traces of the plague have been found in Europe and Asia, and evidence of the disease has been found in 5000-year-old remains in Russia.
However, during the study of an ancient Egyptian mummy stored in Turin, Italy, a group of scientists discovered that the Black Death claimed its victims in North Africa in the early Bronze Age.
The mummy belongs to the end of the Second Transitional Period or the beginning of the New Kingdom. Radiocarbon analysis revealed Y. Pestis DNA in the bone tissue and intestinal contents, indicating that the disease was at a late stage of development at the time of the Egyptian's death.
"This is the first prehistoric Y. pestis gene found outside of Eurasia, confirming the existence of plague in ancient Egypt," the study authors note.
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Scientists cannot currently determine exactly how widespread the Black Death was in ancient Egypt, but some findings indicate that outbreaks of the disease occurred along the banks of the Nile.
For example, about 20 years ago, archaeologists found fleas during excavations of an ancient village in Amarna, where workers who built Tutankhamun's tomb lived.
Fleas are known to transmit bacteria, including the plague, so researchers believe that the disease could have spread to ancient Egypt. This hypothesis is supported by an ancient medical text dating back 3,500 years, which describes a disease that "caused a tambourine to sound and pus to turn to stone."
Scientists believe that the plague could have spread through fleas that lived on Nile rats, after which they could have passed on to black rats that lived on ships, thus spreading the Black Death around the world. However, until now, these theories have not had convincing evidence that the plague actually occurred in ancient Egypt.
As a reminder, a floor paved with bones was found in the Netherlands in the red light district.
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