BACKGROUND: Processes shaping the formation of the present-day population structure in highly urbanized Northern Europe are still poorly understood. Gaps remain in our understanding of when and how currently observable regional differences emerged and what impact city growth, migration, and disease pandemics during and after the Middle Ages had on these processes. RESULTS: We perform low-coverage sequencing of the genomes of 338 individuals spanning the eighth to the eighteenth centuries in the city of Sint-Truiden in Flanders, in the northern part of Belgium. The early/high medieval Sint-Truiden population was more heterogeneous, having received migrants from Scotland or Ireland, and displayed less genetic relatedness than observed today between individuals in present-day Flanders. We find differences in gene variants associated with high vitamin D blood levels between individuals with Gaulish or Germanic ancestry. Although we find evidence of a Yersinia pestis infection in 5 of the 58 late medieval burials, we were unable to detect a major population-scale impact of the second plague pandemic on genetic diversity or on the elevated differentiation of immunity genes. CONCLUSIONS: This study reveals that the genetic homogenization process in a medieval city population in the Low Countries was protracted for centuries. Over time, the Sint-Truiden population became more similar to the current population of the surrounding Limburg province, likely as a result of reduced long-distance migration after the high medieval period, and the continuous process of local admixture of Germanic and Gaulish ancestries which formed the genetic cline observable today in the Low Countries.
- Klíčová slova
- Flanders, Low countries, Medieval, Migration, Palaeo-genomics, Plague, Urbanization,
- MeSH
- dějiny středověku MeSH
- genetická variace MeSH
- genom lidský MeSH
- genomika MeSH
- lidé MeSH
- mor epidemiologie dějiny genetika MeSH
- populační genetika MeSH
- urbanizace * dějiny MeSH
- Check Tag
- dějiny středověku MeSH
- lidé MeSH
- Publikační typ
- časopisecké články MeSH
- historické články MeSH
- Geografické názvy
- Belgie MeSH
Some scholars consider the Antonine Plague to have been a major disease outbreak in the 2nd century CE that caused a significant decline in the population of the Roman Empire. Although there is currently no molecular evidence of the specific pathogen, literary evidence indicates the parameters of the disease that it caused and how significant the impact on Roman society was. One way to advance the current discussion concerning the Antonine Plague's impact on the Roman Empire's population is to examine the currently available sources and comparatively model the spread of different pathogens in a specific location with known demographic data for the relevant period. To accomplish this, we developed a series of dynamic ordinary differential equation models of the spread of disease in Rome between 165 and 189 CE for several pathogens. We found that daily disease deaths in the final years of the pandemic were inconsistent with estimates reported in primary sources, suggesting that either (a) the impact of the Antonine Plague may have been exaggerated in the descriptions of ancient authors, or (b) the daily deaths in ca. 189 CE were caused by a different disease event than the Antonine Plague, or (c) seasonality might have been a significant factor changing the intensity of disease spread, with the population more severely affected during the winter months. Although none of the pathogens we analyzed emerged as the likely causative agent of the Antonine Plague, the models show that the overall mortality rate would have increased maximally by 7%. This result contradicts the mortality rate accepted by historians who defend the thesis of the significant impact of this epidemic on the demography of the Roman Empire.
- MeSH
- dějiny 17. století MeSH
- dějiny 19. století MeSH
- dějiny starověku MeSH
- epidemický výskyt choroby dějiny MeSH
- lidé MeSH
- mor * epidemiologie dějiny mortalita MeSH
- římská říše dějiny MeSH
- teoretické modely * MeSH
- Check Tag
- dějiny 17. století MeSH
- dějiny 19. století MeSH
- dějiny starověku MeSH
- lidé MeSH
- Publikační typ
- časopisecké články MeSH
- historické články MeSH
- srovnávací studie MeSH
- Geografické názvy
- Řím epidemiologie MeSH
OBJECTIVES: Justinian plague and its subsequent outbreaks were major events influencing Early Medieval Europe. One of the affected communities was the population of Saint-Doulchard in France, where plague victim burials were concentrated in a cemetery enclosure ditch. This study aimed to obtain more information about their life-histories using the tools of isotope analysis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Dietary analysis using carbon and nitrogen isotopes was conducted on 97 individuals buried at Le Pressoir in Saint-Doulchard, with 36 of those originating from the enclosure ditch. This sample set includes all individuals analyzed for plague DNA in a previous study. Mobility analysis using strontium isotope analysis supplements the dietary study, with 47 analyzed humans. The results are supported by a reference sample set of 31 animal specimens for dietary analysis and 9 for mobility analysis. RESULTS: The dietary analysis results showed significantly different dietary behavior in individuals from the ditch burials, with better access to higher quality foods richer in animal protein. 87Sr/86Sr ratios are similar for both studied groups and indicate a shared or similar area of origin. DISCUSSION: The results suggest that the ditch burials contain an urban population from the nearby city of Bourges, which overall had a better diet than the rural population from Saint-Doulchard. It is implied that city's population might have been subjected to high mortality rates during the plague outbreak(s), which led to their interment in nearby rural cemeteries.
- Klíčová slova
- 87Sr/86Sr, Early Middle Ages, Justinian plague, δ13C, δ15N,
- MeSH
- dějiny středověku MeSH
- dieta * škodlivé účinky dějiny MeSH
- dítě MeSH
- dospělí MeSH
- hřbitovy MeSH
- izotopy dusíku * analýza MeSH
- izotopy stroncia analýza MeSH
- izotopy uhlíku * analýza MeSH
- kojenec MeSH
- lidé středního věku MeSH
- lidé MeSH
- mladiství MeSH
- mladý dospělý MeSH
- mor * dějiny epidemiologie mortalita MeSH
- předškolní dítě MeSH
- zvířata MeSH
- Check Tag
- dějiny středověku MeSH
- dítě MeSH
- dospělí MeSH
- kojenec MeSH
- lidé středního věku MeSH
- lidé MeSH
- mladiství MeSH
- mladý dospělý MeSH
- mužské pohlaví MeSH
- předškolní dítě MeSH
- ženské pohlaví MeSH
- zvířata MeSH
- Publikační typ
- časopisecké články MeSH
- historické články MeSH
- Geografické názvy
- Francie epidemiologie MeSH
- Názvy látek
- izotopy dusíku * MeSH
- izotopy stroncia MeSH
- izotopy uhlíku * MeSH
Caused by Yersinia pestis, plague ravaged the world through three known pandemics: the First or the Justinianic (6th-8th century); the Second (beginning with the Black Death during c.1338-1353 and lasting until the 19th century); and the Third (which became global in 1894). It is debatable whether Y. pestis persisted in European wildlife reservoirs or was repeatedly introduced from outside Europe (as covered by European Union and the British Isles). Here, we analyze environmental data (soil characteristics and climate) from active Chinese plague reservoirs to assess whether such environmental conditions in Europe had ever supported "natural plague reservoirs". We have used new statistical methods which are validated through predicting the presence of modern plague reservoirs in the western United States. We find no support for persistent natural plague reservoirs in either historical or modern Europe. Two factors make Europe unfavorable for long-term plague reservoirs: 1) Soil texture and biochemistry and 2) low rodent diversity. By comparing rodent communities in Europe with those in China and the United States, we conclude that a lack of suitable host species might be the main reason for the absence of plague reservoirs in Europe today. These findings support the hypothesis that long-term plague reservoirs did not exist in Europe and therefore question the importance of wildlife rodent species as the primary plague hosts in Europe.
- Klíčová slova
- Europe, Yersinia pestis, environmental conditions, natural plague reservoirs, rodent diversity,
- MeSH
- lidé MeSH
- mor * epidemiologie dějiny MeSH
- pandemie dějiny MeSH
- podnebí MeSH
- půda MeSH
- Yersinia pestis * MeSH
- zdroje nemoci MeSH
- Check Tag
- lidé MeSH
- Publikační typ
- časopisecké články MeSH
- práce podpořená grantem MeSH
- Geografické názvy
- Evropa MeSH
- Názvy látek
- půda MeSH
The distribution of the black rat (Rattus rattus) has been heavily influenced by its association with humans. The dispersal history of this non-native commensal rodent across Europe, however, remains poorly understood, and different introductions may have occurred during the Roman and medieval periods. Here, in order to reconstruct the population history of European black rats, we first generate a de novo genome assembly of the black rat. We then sequence 67 ancient and three modern black rat mitogenomes, and 36 ancient and three modern nuclear genomes from archaeological sites spanning the 1st-17th centuries CE in Europe and North Africa. Analyses of our newly reported sequences, together with published mitochondrial DNA sequences, confirm that black rats were introduced into the Mediterranean and Europe from Southwest Asia. Genomic analyses of the ancient rats reveal a population turnover in temperate Europe between the 6th and 10th centuries CE, coincident with an archaeologically attested decline in the black rat population. The near disappearance and re-emergence of black rats in Europe may have been the result of the breakdown of the Roman Empire, the First Plague Pandemic, and/or post-Roman climatic cooling.
- MeSH
- archeologie MeSH
- krysa rodu Rattus MeSH
- lidé MeSH
- mitochondriální DNA genetika MeSH
- mor * epidemiologie MeSH
- zvířata MeSH
- Check Tag
- krysa rodu Rattus MeSH
- lidé MeSH
- zvířata MeSH
- Publikační typ
- časopisecké články MeSH
- práce podpořená grantem MeSH
- Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S. MeSH
- Geografické názvy
- Evropa epidemiologie MeSH
- Střední východ MeSH
- Názvy látek
- mitochondriální DNA MeSH
The bacterial pathogen Yersinia pestis gave rise to devastating outbreaks throughout human history, and ancient DNA evidence has shown it afflicted human populations as far back as the Neolithic. Y. pestis genomes recovered from the Eurasian Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age (LNBA) period have uncovered key evolutionary steps that led to its emergence from a Yersinia pseudotuberculosis-like progenitor; however, the number of reconstructed LNBA genomes are too few to explore its diversity during this critical period of development. Here, we present 17 Y. pestis genomes dating to 5,000 to 2,500 y BP from a wide geographic expanse across Eurasia. This increased dataset enabled us to explore correlations between temporal, geographical, and genetic distance. Our results suggest a nonflea-adapted and potentially extinct single lineage that persisted over millennia without significant parallel diversification, accompanied by rapid dispersal across continents throughout this period, a trend not observed in other pathogens for which ancient genomes are available. A stepwise pattern of gene loss provides further clues on its early evolution and potential adaptation. We also discover the presence of the flea-adapted form of Y. pestis in Bronze Age Iberia, previously only identified in in the Caucasus and the Volga regions, suggesting a much wider geographic spread of this form of Y. pestis. Together, these data reveal the dynamic nature of plague’s formative years in terms of its early evolution and ecology.
- Klíčová slova
- Yersinia pestis, ancient DNA, plague,
- MeSH
- chov zvířat dějiny MeSH
- dějiny starověku MeSH
- fylogeneze MeSH
- genetická variace MeSH
- genom bakteriální * MeSH
- lidé MeSH
- migrace lidstva dějiny MeSH
- mor * epidemiologie dějiny mikrobiologie MeSH
- starobylá DNA MeSH
- Yersinia pestis * klasifikace genetika izolace a purifikace MeSH
- zvířata MeSH
- Check Tag
- dějiny starověku MeSH
- lidé MeSH
- zvířata MeSH
- Publikační typ
- časopisecké články MeSH
- historické články MeSH
- Názvy látek
- starobylá DNA MeSH
The Black Death (1347-1352 CE) is the most renowned pandemic in human history, believed by many to have killed half of Europe's population. However, despite advances in ancient DNA research that conclusively identified the pandemic's causative agent (bacterium Yersinia pestis), our knowledge of the Black Death remains limited, based primarily on qualitative remarks in medieval written sources available for some areas of Western Europe. Here, we remedy this situation by applying a pioneering new approach, 'big data palaeoecology', which, starting from palynological data, evaluates the scale of the Black Death's mortality on a regional scale across Europe. We collected pollen data on landscape change from 261 radiocarbon-dated coring sites (lakes and wetlands) located across 19 modern-day European countries. We used two independent methods of analysis to evaluate whether the changes we see in the landscape at the time of the Black Death agree with the hypothesis that a large portion of the population, upwards of half, died within a few years in the 21 historical regions we studied. While we can confirm that the Black Death had a devastating impact in some regions, we found that it had negligible or no impact in others. These inter-regional differences in the Black Death's mortality across Europe demonstrate the significance of cultural, ecological, economic, societal and climatic factors that mediated the dissemination and impact of the disease. The complex interplay of these factors, along with the historical ecology of plague, should be a focus of future research on historical pandemics.
- MeSH
- lidé MeSH
- mor * epidemiologie dějiny mikrobiologie MeSH
- pandemie dějiny MeSH
- starobylá DNA MeSH
- Yersinia pestis * genetika MeSH
- zvířata MeSH
- Check Tag
- lidé MeSH
- zvířata MeSH
- Publikační typ
- časopisecké články MeSH
- práce podpořená grantem MeSH
- Geografické názvy
- Evropa epidemiologie MeSH
- Názvy látek
- starobylá DNA MeSH
Bioterrorist threats and attacks are still an issue of concern in the world. Biological agents are divided into three categories. The highest priority agents classified in category A pose a massive risk to public health and national security. The society should be prepared for this risk. Health professionals in the Czech Republic should be aware of the diseases caused by category A agents, which are not common in the country. In this context, the project of the Ministry of the Interior of the Czech Republic “Decontamination of the injured persons” has been implemented at the Faculty of Health Sciences, Palacký University, Olomouc. The article provides an overview of selected serious infectious risks and information on the project the aim of which is to create certified methodical procedures and guidelines on situations related to bioterrorism.
- Klíčová slova
- anthrax, bioterrorism, botulism, decontamination, ebola, plague, tularemia, variola,
- MeSH
- antrax MeSH
- bioterorismus * prevence a kontrola trendy MeSH
- civilní obrana * MeSH
- lidé MeSH
- mor MeSH
- pravé neštovice MeSH
- tularemie MeSH
- Check Tag
- lidé MeSH
- Publikační typ
- časopisecké články MeSH
- Geografické názvy
- Česká republika MeSH
The Black Death, originating in Asia, arrived in the Mediterranean harbors of Europe in 1347 CE, via the land and sea trade routes of the ancient Silk Road system. This epidemic marked the start of the second plague pandemic, which lasted in Europe until the early 19th century. This pandemic is generally understood as the consequence of a singular introduction of Yersinia pestis, after which the disease established itself in European rodents over four centuries. To locate these putative plague reservoirs, we studied the climate fluctuations that preceded regional plague epidemics, based on a dataset of 7,711 georeferenced historical plague outbreaks and 15 annually resolved tree-ring records from Europe and Asia. We provide evidence for repeated climate-driven reintroductions of the bacterium into European harbors from reservoirs in Asia, with a delay of 15 ± 1 y. Our analysis finds no support for the existence of permanent plague reservoirs in medieval Europe.
- Klíčová slova
- Yersinia pestis, climate-driven disease dynamics, medieval epidemiology,
- MeSH
- dějiny středověku MeSH
- epidemický výskyt choroby dějiny MeSH
- lidé MeSH
- mor epidemiologie přenos MeSH
- podnebí * MeSH
- Check Tag
- dějiny středověku MeSH
- lidé MeSH
- Publikační typ
- časopisecké články MeSH
- historické články MeSH
- práce podpořená grantem MeSH
- Geografické názvy
- Evropa epidemiologie MeSH
