the skeleton of a woman found near Vilnius (Lithuania) in the plague burial ground of the XV century, archaeologists unexpectedly discovered the pathogen of infectious diseases typical of the tropics. The study showed, the woman died from yaws – a disease also known as tropical syphilis.
a Mass grave discovered during construction work in 2006-2007 in a mass grave was found 216 skeletons. Because historical information on the tomb was not, and it was situated outside the medieval city walls, the scientists suggested that the buried victims of the epidemic threat.
Tests confirmed the assumptions of archaeologists: a DNA study found traces of Yersinia pestis (Yersinia pestis). So the cause of death buried plague. And this fact was not a surprise, says Kirsten BOS from the German Institute of history of the max Planck Society, head of research: in the Europe of the XV century the plague was common. Surprise was another result of the study. Using a relatively new method of DNA analysis, scientists have searched for other pathogens.
In one of the four studied skeletons of a young woman – they found traces of DNA of Treponema pallidum pertenue. This bacterium has a close genetic relationship with the bacterium Treponema pallidum subspecies pallidum, the causative agent of syphilis. Spirochete Treponema pallidum pertenue causes tropical syphilis, or yaws. It’s a bacterial infection of the skin, bones and joints. If untreated, yaws can lead to disability and even death.
As it turned out, one of the women buried in a plague cemetery in the North of Europe died from yaws, typical of the tropics.
the Opening allows you to “explore the historical context of the alleged epidemic of syphilis in the late middle Ages”, the article says. “Now we can say that yaws was already on the continent in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. It can be assumed that she was the cause of the epidemic, and not syphilis,” said BOS.
According to one hypothesis, syphilis first appeared in Europe in 1495, when the French troops of king Charles VIII besieged the city of Naples. At first the disease spread among the soldiers, then the disease has spread across much of Europe.
Another point of view links the spread of syphilis with the development of trade in the XV century, when Europeans established links with West Africa – from there the disease was brought to Europe with people or primates.
Until now it was assumed that yaws is common only in warm climates. Today, by the way, the disease occurs mainly in poor countries of Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Pacific region – in areas of tropical forests with a warm, humid climate.
