{UAH} Skeletons in London (Plague)
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Plague ...Really ...can some one tell us the skulls are damaged?????
Skeletons give up the secrets of Black Death: Humans, not rats, spread the plague
- Scientists have been examining skeletons of plague victims unearthed in Clerkenwell, London
- They compared DNA taken from bones with samples from a recent outbreak in Madagascar which killed 60 people
- The two samples were an almost perfect match, meaning the plague was no more virulent than it is today
- They now believe that the disease was airborne and had to have been spread by coughs and sneezes
PUBLISHED: 02:07 GMT, 30 March 2014 | UPDATED: 23:41 GMT, 30 March 2014
It was the most devastating pandemic in human history.
But 25 skeletons discovered by railway engineers beneath London suggest the Black Death was even more lethal than previously thought.
After analysing the teeth of the corpses, scientists believe the bubonic plague – spread by the bites of infected fleas living on black rats – mutated into a more virulent strain that passed easily from human to human.
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New theory: Analysis of skeletons discovered in London believed to be victims of the Black Death suggests the disease was not spread by rat fleas, but was in fact airborne
DNA of plague bacteria taken from the 25 skeletons discovered in Clerkenwell was compared to samples from a recent outbreak in Madagascar which killed 60 people
The remains were discovered during excavations of Charterhouse Square in Farringdon, London, an area of the capital left largely undisturbed for years
This 'pneumonic' form of plague infected the lungs of sufferers, meaning they could spread the disease simply by coughing – fatal in medieval Europe's crowded cities. It also had a much lower survival rate and could kill within 24 hours.
The outbreak claimed the lives of around 75million people in the 14th century. The researchers say only the more contagious strain can explain why so many died.
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Among the victims was Edward III's daughter, Joan, who sailed to Europe to marry the heir to the Spanish throne of Castile. She died of the plague within ten days of arriving.
The new findings, revealed in Channel 4 documentary Secret History: Return of the Black Death, which will air on Sunday, emerged after engineers working on the Crossrail project discovered 25 skeletons while digging 26 miles of tunnels beneath the capital.
They were found close to Smithfield Market last year, in neat rows on two levels sealed under a layer of clay. Thousands of bodies are thought to have been interred at an emergency burial site there.
Teeth from 12 of the skeletons were sent for analysis and four tested positive for Yersinia pestis. The deadly bacterium is responsible for both bubonic and pneumonic plague. But the researchers concluded that the bubonic strain could not have had the devastating impact seen during the Black Death.
Dr Tim Brooks, an expert in infectious diseases at Public Health England, said: 'As an explanation for the Black Death in its own right, [bubonic plague is] simply not good enough.
The researchers were shocked to discover that the two samples were an almost perfect match, meaning the 14th century plague was no more virulent than it is today
The DNA samples, which were extracted from the molar teeth of the skeletons, have also revealed intriguing details of the victims' lives
Don Walker, an osteologist with the Museum of London with one of the 25 skeletons found by construction workers under central London's Charterhouse Square last year
'It cannot spread fast enough from one household to the next to cause the huge number of cases that we saw during the Black Death epidemics.'
He added: 'In a small number of people … the organism will spread to their lungs and they will then develop a pneumonia. It is that critical switch, that if there were enough people in contact with them, that allows it to spread as a pneumonic plague.'
Fellow researcher Don Walker, of the Museum of London Archaeology, said the pneumonic form was 'more lethal', adding: 'There was no chance of recovery.'
Bring out your dead: The Black Death decimated the population of Britain in the mid 14th century killing an estimated six of 10 Londoners
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