Page 75 - Studia Universitatis Hereditati, vol 12(1) (2024)

Wiechmann, I., M. Harbeck in G. Grupe. Summary
2010. »Yersinia Pestis DNA Sequences in The article presents an overview of archaeological, bio-
Late Mediveal Skeletal Finds, Bavaria.« archaeological, and genetic research related to the medi-
Emerging Infectous Diseases 16 (11): 1806– eval epidemic of Yersinia pestis, now known as the Black
1807. Death. It was triggered by climate fluctuations, Mon-
Willmott, H., P. Townend, D. Mahoney gol migrations, and widespread trade routes connecting
Swales, H. Poinar, K. Eaton in J. Klink. Europe and China. Due to climate changes, wars, social
2020. »A Black Death Mass Grave at stratification, depleted soil, and chronic malnutrition
Thornton Abbey: The Discovery and among the poorer segments of the population, Europe-
Examination of a Fourteenth-Century an populations were even more vulnerable to the dead-
Rural Catastrophe.« Antiquity 94 (373): ly epidemic. Several mass graves from mid-fourteenth
179–196. century Central and Western Europe are known, with
Wood, J., in S. DeWitte. 2003. »Was the Black the best-studied ones located in Great Britain. Ar-
Death Yersinial Plague?« The Lancet chaeological research has shown that despite the inter- 75
Infectous Diseases 3 (6): 327–328.
ruption of traditional churchyard burials and the sub-
Povzetek sequent opening of new mass graves, basic religious
V prispevku je predstavljen pregled arheoloških, bioar- burial practices largely remained intact. Bioarchaeolog-
ical studies of the remains of victims of the disease have
heoloških in genetskih raziskav, povezanih s srednjeve- revealed that poorer, older, and more infirm individuals
ško epidemijo Yersinie pestis, danes znano kot črna smrt. were the hardest hit in terms of death tolls. Genetic re-
Povzročila so jo podnebna nihanja, mongolske migra- search on ancient DNA has confirmed that the patho- Črna smrt v luči (bio)arheologije
cije ter razprostranjene trgovske poti, ki so povezovale gen Yersinia pestis caused the epidemic and has provided
Evropo in Kitajsko. Zaradi podnebnih sprememb, vojn, insights into its evolutionary history and the behaviour
razslojevanja in izčrpane prsti ter kronične podhranje- of the pathogen in the centuries following the first out-
nosti revnejših delov populacije so bile evropske popu- break in Europe. It appears that many of the subsequent
lacije še ranljivejše glede smrtonosne epidemije. Pozna- waves were caused by short-term climate fluctuations in
mo več množičnih grobišč srednje in zahodne Evrope Central Asia. Climate fluctuations also contributed to
iz sredine 14. stoletja, najbolje so raziskana v Veliki Bri- the transmission of the pathogen to Europe in the first
taniji. Arheološke raziskave so pokazale, da so kljub pre- wave. Mass burials associated with the Black Death can
kinitvi običajnega pokopavanja ob cerkvah in posle- be identified, in the absence of written records and ge-
dičnemu odpiranju novih, množičnih grobišč osnovni netic research, based on their dating to the mid-four-
religijski nazori o pokopavanju v večini primerov osta- teenth century.
li v veljavi. Bioarheološke raziskave posmrtnih ostankov
žrtev te bolezni so pokazale, da so bili po številu smrti
najprizadetejši revnejši, starejši in bolehni posamezniki.
Genetske raziskave stare DNK so potrdile, da je pato-
gen Yersinia pestis povzročil epidemijo, prav tako so pri-
spevale uvid v njeno evolucijsko zgodovino in obnašanje
patogena v stoletjih po prvem izbruhu te bolezni v Evro-
pi. Zdi se, da so mnoge izmed naslednjih valov povzroči-
la kratkotrajna podnebna nihanja v centralni Aziji. Pod-
nebna nihanja so prav tako povzročila prenos patogena
do Evrope v prvem valu. Množične pokope, povezane s
črno smrtjo, lahko ob odsotnosti pisnih virov in genet-
skih raziskav prepoznamo na podlagi datacije v sredino
14. stoletja.