Ancient DNA reveals cause of world’s first recorded pandemic

Scientists have confirmed that the Justinian Plague, the world’s first recorded pandemic, was caused by Yersinia pestis, the same bacterium behind the Black Death. Dating back some 1,500 years and long described in historical texts but never fully understood, the pandemic devastated the eastern Mediterranean during the Byzantine Empire, and its pathogen had until now remained uncertain.

A study published on July 31 by researchers from the University of South Florida and Florida Atlantic University has provided the first direct biological evidence. DNA extracted from teeth in a mass grave beneath the ancient Roman hippodrome of Jerash, Jordan, revealed that the victims carried nearly identical strains of Yersinia pestis. The findings confirm the bacterium’s role and point to a lethal outbreak between 550 and 660 CE, consistent with historical accounts of widespread fatalities.

The Black Death remains the most fatal pandemic recorded in human history. A devastating sweep of bubonic plague, caused by the same bacterium responsible for pneumonic plague, struck Europe and Asia in the mid-1300s and is estimated to have killed some 200 million people. But where did this pernicious pestilence originate, how was it transmitted, and what were its consequences?

Click below to find out more about this deadly medieval killer.