Neolithic hunter-gatherer identified as the oldest plague victim
The high bacterial load of plague bacterium in their bloodstream indicates it was likely transmitted through the bite of an infected rodent, resulting in septicemia plague.
pandemic
Plague, Pestilence and Pandemic: Voices from History
Disease has been a constant companion of humankind throughout the ages. As civilisations rose, populations flourished, and trade routes expanded, people brought their ideas, their goods, and their pathogens to new lands and cities that had never previously encountered them.…
News in brief
A 13th century Bishop's palace unearthed in Somerset, an aerial tribute to NHS, and a box of mementos donated to English Heritage.
Pandemics and public health: cleansing Bath’s ‘Great Unwashed’
Excavations in Bath have revealed the remains of one of the earliest Victorian wash houses. Constructed during a time of revolutionary social reform and seismic shifts in attitudes towards poverty and public health, what can it tell us about how local authorities and community campaigners strove to improve the well-being of the poor following the arrival of a devastating pandemic? Current Archaeology explores recent research by Cai Mason.
War, plague, and pollution from a European ice core
For millennia, fresh ice forming on a European glacier marked the passing years like tree rings. But over time these layers became compressed, preventing individual years within the depths of the ice from being examined individually. A new technology is now unlocking this remarkable repository of information, as Alexander More, Christopher Loveluck, Michael McCormick, and Paul Mayewski told World Archaeology.