FLORENCE, ITALY—Evidence of the parasite that causes a virulent type of malaria (Plasmodium falciparum) has been detected in a 500-year-old organ stored in a terracotta jar bearing the Medici family crest by researchers led by Albert Zink of Italy’s Institute for Mummy Studies, according to a Live Science report. Zink and his colleagues were working to match organs in the Medici jars with skeletal remains in Medici coffins buried in Florence’s San Lorenzo Basilica when they saw the parasites on preserved red blood cells from one of the individuals. The parasite would have produced a severe, relapsing fever, but it is not clear if the person was killed by the disease. Zink added, however, that not enough DNA was preserved to compare the parasite to living specimens. It is possible that a Medici family member was bitten by a malaria-bearing mosquito while hunting in the marshlands of Florence. “This is clear proof of something that was suspected but never really shown in that way,” Zink said. Read the original scholarly article about this research in Emerging Infectious Diseases. To read about the tomb of a Medici warrior, go to “Medici Mystery.”
Malaria Parasite Found in Medici Organ
News June 12, 2023
Recommended Articles
Artifacts July/August 2024
Etruscan Oil Lamp
Digs & Discoveries May/June 2024
Pompeian Politics
Letter from Vesuvius September/October 2023
Digging on the Dark Side of the Volcano
Survivors of the infamous disaster rebuilt their lives on the ashes of the A.D. 79 eruption
-
Features May/June 2023
The Man in the Middle
How an ingenious royal official transformed Persian conquerors into proper Egyptian pharaohs
(© The Trustees of the British Museum) -
Letter from the American Southeast May/June 2023
Spartans of the Lower Mississippi
Unearthing evidence of defiance and resilience in the homeland of the Chickasaw
(Kimberly Wescott and Brad Lieb, Chickasaw Native Explorers Program 2015) -
Artifacts May/June 2023
Greek Kylix Fragments
(Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford) -
Digs & Discoveries May/June 2023
The Beauty of Bugs
(Michael Terlep)