Glad this is solved. Yersinia pestis is the same bacterium that caused the Black Death in the Middle Ages.
Ancient DNA solves Plague of Justinian mystery to rewrite pandemic history
"For the first time, researchers have uncovered direct genomic evidence of the bacterium behind the Plague of Justinian—the world's first recorded pandemic—in the Eastern Mediterranean, where the outbreak was first described nearly 1,500 years ago.
The discovery, led by an interdisciplinary team at the University of South Florida and Florida Atlantic University, with collaborators in India and Australia, identified Yersinia pestis, the microbe that causes plague, in a mass grave at the ancient city of Jerash, Jordan, near the pandemic's epicenter. The find definitively links the pathogen to the Justinian Plague marking the first pandemic (AD 541–750), resolving one of history's long-standing mysteries.
For centuries, historians have deliberated on what caused the devastating outbreak that killed tens of millions, reshaped the Byzantine Empire and altered the course of Western civilization. Despite circumstantial evidence, direct proof of the responsible microbe had remained elusive—a missing link in the story of pandemics.
Two newly published papers led by USF and FAU provide these long-sought answers, offering new insight into one of the most consequential episodes in human history."
Ancient DNA solves Plague of Justinian mystery to rewrite pandemic history
"For the first time, researchers have uncovered direct genomic evidence of the bacterium behind the Plague of Justinian—the world's first recorded pandemic—in the Eastern Mediterranean, where the outbreak was first described nearly 1,500 years ago.
The discovery, led by an interdisciplinary team at the University of South Florida and Florida Atlantic University, with collaborators in India and Australia, identified Yersinia pestis, the microbe that causes plague, in a mass grave at the ancient city of Jerash, Jordan, near the pandemic's epicenter. The find definitively links the pathogen to the Justinian Plague marking the first pandemic (AD 541–750), resolving one of history's long-standing mysteries.
For centuries, historians have deliberated on what caused the devastating outbreak that killed tens of millions, reshaped the Byzantine Empire and altered the course of Western civilization. Despite circumstantial evidence, direct proof of the responsible microbe had remained elusive—a missing link in the story of pandemics.
Two newly published papers led by USF and FAU provide these long-sought answers, offering new insight into one of the most consequential episodes in human history."
