New Thoughts on the Spread of the Justinian Plague

CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND—BBC News reports that a large-scale genetic study led by Eske Willerslev and Peter de Barros Damgaard of the University of Copenhagen suggests the Justinian Plague, which killed an estimated 25 million people in A.D. 541, may have originated in central and eastern Asia, and not in Egypt, as had been previously thought. The scientists analyzed the genomes of 137 people who lived between 2500 B.C. and A.D. 1500 and were buried in the steppe stretching from Hungary to northeastern China. An older version of the Justinian plague strain was detected in an individual from the Tian Shan mountains who died around A.D. 200, and a version dated to between the sixth and ninth centuries A.D. was found in an individual buried in North Ossetia, Russia. The disease was thought to have been brought to Constantinople by rats traveling on grain ships from Egypt, but Willerslev and Damgaard think it might have been carried by the Huns—a name given to the diverse nomadic groups who attacked the Roman Empire in the fourth century. “An appearance has also been found in Egypt,” Damgaard explained. “As such, increased interaction under the Hunnic and later the Turk Khaganate would have aided in bringing this plague strain through the Silk Road.” For more, go to “A Parisian Plague.”