Plague in ancient Egypt: DNA discovery rewrites history
Scientists have discovered DNA of the bacterium Yersinia pestis in a mummy from Egypt dating back approximately 3,300 years, confirming the presence of the plague outside Eurasia.
Scientists have made a groundbreaking discovery: they found the DNA of the bacterium Yersinia pestis in a mummy from Egypt, dated to around 3,300 years ago. This is the oldest confirmed case of the plague outside Eurasia, suggesting that this disease was present in North Africa as early as the Bronze Age.
DNA of the Black Death in an ancient mummy
Research conducted on the mummy housed in the Museo Egizio in Turin revealed the presence of Yersinia pestis DNA in both bone tissue and intestinal contents. This discovery indicates that the person died in an advanced stage of the disease. Scientists emphasize that although it is not possible to determine how common the plague was in ancient Egypt, previous studies suggest potential epidemics along the Nile.
Previous discoveries, such as fleas found in Amarna, where the builders of Tutankhamun's tomb lived, and medical texts from the Ebers Papyrus, which describe a disease with symptoms similar to the plague, support the hypothesis of this disease's presence in ancient Egypt. New studies provide strong evidence of the plague's existence in this region, although full research results are still awaited.
Further research ongoing
The abstract published in The Bozen-Bolzano Institutional Archive (BIA) reads that the genomic data obtained is being further analyzed to assign the ancient strain to the currently known diversity of Y. pestis, study virulence-related genes, and characterize its possible transmission modes and pathology.
The evidence of the plague's presence outside Eurasia is molecular, and it is currently not possible to determine how widespread this disease was in the discussed region during that period.
