bubonic plague

5 February, 2021 - 17:11 ashley cowie

Mystery of Genghis Khan’s Death Considered Solved

A team of scientists have cleared up the myths surrounding the death of the great Genghis Khan . They claim that his passing might hold a message for today’s leaders amidst the threats of the current...

Florence’s historic ‘wine windows’ have reopened in response to COVID-19 Source: Buchette Del Vino

11 August, 2020 - 00:11 ashley cowie

Historic Wine Windows Reopen in Italy, What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

The bubonic plague , otherwise known as the Black Death, originated in Asia during the late Middle Ages and spread north into Europe through the bacteria Yersinia pestis on infected fleas. To counter...

A grim reaper brings death by boat. Credit: Cushing / Whitney Medical Library

17 May, 2020 - 14:03 ancient-origins

How ‘Death Ships’ Spread Disease Through the Ages

One of the haunting images of this pandemic will be stationary cruise ships – deadly carriers of COVID-19 – at anchor in harbours and unwanted. Docked in ports and feared. The news of the dramatic...

The Plague in Rome by Jules Elie Delaunay (1869) Minneapolis Institute of Arts (Public Domain)

5 May, 2020 - 01:01 victor labate

Diseases and Pandemics in Ancient Rome

During antiquity, Rome was an international metropolis, a melting pot bustling with people from all four corners of the empire. The city had impressive marble structures towering over overcrowded...

The Black Death was spread across Europe by rats. Source: rawinfoto / Adobe Stock.

2 January, 2020 - 14:00 Aleksa Vučković

Culling the World: The Catastrophic Conquests of the Black Death

Medieval history is seldom kind. The decades and centuries slumbered onwards, each one bringing its own share of wars, crime , poverty...and disease. Happiness and prosperity were rare and almost...

Ruins and obelisks at Axum, former capital of the Kingdom of Aksum

13 April, 2019 - 01:51 Kerry Sullivan

The Kingdom of Axum: Facts and Legends of a First Millennium Powerhouse

Located on the Horn of Africa, the ancient Ethiopian kingdom of Axum (also spelled Aksum) played a significant role in international relations around the time of the first millennium. At its height,...

Crossrail archaeologists excavate an apparent mass grave at the Bedlam hospital cemetery

20 August, 2015 - 01:01 Mark Miller

Mass grave of possible bubonic plague victims excavated in London

A mass grave of 30 possible bubonic plague victims is being excavated in London at the huge cemetery of Bedlam mental asylum that was discovered while workers were building the Crossrail subway...

Archaeologists with the French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP) plan to test the DNA of the remains.

4 March, 2015 - 11:59 Mark Miller

Old skeletons, possibly plague victims, found under Paris grocery

Archaeologists have unearthed the skeletal remains of 200 people underneath a supermarket in Paris on the site of an old hospital where victims of the Black Plague had been known to be buried. It was...

28 January, 2014 - 22:58 aprilholloway

Scientists decode 1,500-year-old plague and warn it could strike again

Scientists have, for the first time, achieved a complete reconstruction of the genome responsible for the bubonic plague, which struck the Eastern Roman Empire 1,500 years ago, and is said to have...

14 December, 2013 - 05:20 aprilholloway

Archaeologists find mass grave with evidence of cholera outbreak

Archaeologists digging in the graveyard of the Abbey of St Peter in Lucca, Italy, have discovered a mass grave that contains evidence of an ancient cholera outbreak . The researchers hope the DNA...