Summary Background Yersinia pestis has caused at least three human plague pandemics. The second (Black Death, 14–17th centuries) and third (19–20th centuries) have been genetically characterised, but ...there is only a limited understanding of the first pandemic, the Plague of Justinian (6–8th centuries). To address this gap, we sequenced and analysed draft genomes of Y pestis obtained from two individuals who died in the first pandemic. Methods Teeth were removed from two individuals (known as A120 and A76) from the early medieval Aschheim-Bajuwarenring cemetery (Aschheim, Bavaria, Germany). We isolated DNA from the teeth using a modified phenol-chloroform method. We screened DNA extracts for the presence of the Y pestis -specific pla gene on the pPCP1 plasmid using primers and standards from an established assay, enriched the DNA, and then sequenced it. We reconstructed draft genomes of the infectious Y pestis strains, compared them with a database of genomes from 131 Y pestis strains from the second and third pandemics, and constructed a maximum likelihood phylogenetic tree. Findings Radiocarbon dating of both individuals (A120 to 533 AD plus or minus 98 years; A76 to 504 AD plus or minus 61 years) places them in the timeframe of the first pandemic. Our phylogeny contains a novel branch (100% bootstrap at all relevant nodes) leading to the two Justinian samples. This branch has no known contemporary representatives, and thus is either extinct or unsampled in wild rodent reservoirs. The Justinian branch is interleaved between two extant groups, 0.ANT1 and 0.ANT2, and is distant from strains associated with the second and third pandemics. Interpretation We conclude that the Y pestis lineages that caused the Plague of Justinian and the Black Death 800 years later were independent emergences from rodents into human beings. These results show that rodent species worldwide represent important reservoirs for the repeated emergence of diverse lineages of Y pestis into human populations. Funding McMaster University, Northern Arizona University, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Canada Research Chairs Program, US Department of Homeland Security, US National Institutes of Health, Australian National Health and Medical Research Council.
Yersinia pestis, the etiologic agent of the disease plague, has been implicated in three historical pandemics. These include the third pandemic of the 19(th) and 20(th) centuries, during which plague ...was spread around the world, and the second pandemic of the 14(th)-17(th) centuries, which included the infamous epidemic known as the Black Death. Previous studies have confirmed that Y. pestis caused these two more recent pandemics. However, a highly spirited debate still continues as to whether Y. pestis caused the so-called Justinianic Plague of the 6(th)-8(th) centuries AD. By analyzing ancient DNA in two independent ancient DNA laboratories, we confirmed unambiguously the presence of Y. pestis DNA in human skeletal remains from an Early Medieval cemetery. In addition, we narrowed the phylogenetic position of the responsible strain down to major branch 0 on the Y. pestis phylogeny, specifically between nodes N03 and N05. Our findings confirm that Y. pestis was responsible for the Justinianic Plague, which should end the controversy regarding the etiology of this pandemic. The first genotype of a Y. pestis strain that caused the Late Antique plague provides important information about the history of the plague bacillus and suggests that the first pandemic also originated in Asia, similar to the other two plague pandemics.
Community differentiation is a fundamental topic of the social sciences, and its prehistoric origins in Europe are typically assumed to lie among the complex, densely populated societies that ...developed millennia after their Neolithic predecessors. Here we present the earliest, statistically significant evidence for such differentiation among the first farmers of Neolithic Europe. By using strontium isotopic data from more than 300 early Neolithic human skeletons, we find significantly less variance in geographic signatures among males than we find among females, and less variance among burials with ground stone adzes than burials without such adzes. From this, in context with other available evidence, we infer differential land use in early Neolithic central Europe within a patrilocal kinship system.
Ancient DNA (aDNA) recovered from plague victims of the second plague pandemic (14th to 17th century), excavated from two different burial sites in Germany, and spanning a time period of more than ...300 years, was characterized using single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) analysis. Of 30 tested skeletons 8 were positive for Yersinia pestis-specific nucleic acid, as determined by qPCR targeting the pla gene. In one individual (MP-19-II), the pla copy number in DNA extracted from tooth pulp was as high as 700 gene copies/μl, indicating severe generalized infection. All positive individuals were identical in all 16 SNP positions, separating phylogenetic branches within nodes N07_N10 (14 SNPs), N07_N08 (SNP s19) and N06_N07 (s545), and were highly similar to previously investigated plague victims from other European countries. Thus, beside the assumed continuous reintroduction of Y. pestis from central Asia in multiple waves during the second pandemic, long-term persistence of Y. pestis in Europe in a yet unknown reservoir host has also to be considered.
The two archaeofaunal assemblages from Haithabu (Viking period) and Schleswig (early Middle Age) belong to the largest such bone complexes ever recovered in Northern Europe. More than 800,000 animal ...bones were recovered from both sites in the course of the last three decades and investigated by traditional archaeozoological methods. More recently and independently from the latter, stable isotopic ratios of the light elements carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen were analyzed on a total of 440 animal bone finds representing 67 vertebrate species from both sites producing a data set comprising 1,760 individual isotopic ratios. In addition, stable strontium isotopic ratios were obtained from 68 animal teeth and bones of four species. In this paper, an attempt is made to synthesize archaeozoological and archaeometrical data on a larger scale. By becoming familiar with the specific potential of each method, we raise questions concerning not only palaeobiodiversity and palaeoecology of fish and birds in the area, trophic webs, and prey/predator relationships, but also human meat-provisioning, import of animals and animal products, and the reconstruction of hunting areas. This transdisciplinary approach led to an improvement in the quality of our interpretations and the validation of previously confirmed and/or rejected assumptions. It is still too early to expect answers to all these questions, but we are convinced that, in attempting to do so, the potential of coordinating such methods for future research will become evident, and we therefore strongly recommend an intensification of archaeometric analyses of archaeofaunal assemblages.
This study serves for the definition of baseline isotopic signatures of vertebrates living in the Schlei fjord, a brackish water inlet in the north German plain, where the salinity decreases from its ...mouth at the Baltic Sea towards the inland locations. The Viking trade centre Haithabu and its immediate successor, the town of Schleswig, are located at opposite banks of the Schlei and constitute a settlement continuum from the 9th until the 13th century. This development not only includes a relocation of the settlement site, but also a change in economy and social structure, and witnesses the metamorphosis from an international trading locality to the rise and decline of a prototypical medieval town with town charter. In this paper, stable isotope ratios of bone collagen and bone structural carbonate of 141 vertebrate bone finds mainly of fish, birds, and sea mammals from both sites are reported to provide the baseline food web in this brackish water environment, which is the prerequisite for our ongoing studies aiming at the reconstruction of human subsistence strategies as well as the geographic origin of humans, animals, food stuffs, and raw materials in order to complete the historical picture of emerging medieval towns in a complex palaeoecosystem. In particular, we are able to show how a combination of stable isotopes from bone collagen and carbonate is capable of defining the salinity gradients in the aquatic environment.
The provenance and depositional setting of the human remains in the Dietersberg Cave, located in the Franconian Alb in Southern Germany, are evaluated based on
14
C-dates and stable isotope analyses ...(C, N, O, Sr). Four basic scenarios are discussed: (1) human sacrifice, (2) ‘regular’ burial place for a small social unit, (3) special social group (e.g. slaves) and (4) special circumstances of death (e.g. fatal illness). Scenarios 1 and 2 are unlikely as the age distribution includes all ages and both sexes and the
14
C-dates of the human remains span most of the Iron Age which would result in an implausible small burial community. Stable isotope analyses also render the deposition of slaves (scenario 3) implausible because a high proportion of the individuals were probably of local origin and their diet was not fundamentally different from that of contemporary populations. The archaeological evidence points to a social bias (i.e. low social standing) as reason for deposition. However, the high numbers of apotropaic objects and of perinatals also suggest that scenario 4 might be plausible for at least some of the individuals. The cave was probably a place of deposition not only for one category of individuals but also for those whose burial in the ‘regular’ cemetery was not considered appropriate.
PDF
