Scientists say they've solved a 700-year-old mystery: Where and when Black Death began
For centuries, scientists and historians have wondered where the Black Death — the deadliest pandemic in recorded history — came from. New research sheds light on the ancient disease.
Where did the Black Death come from? And when did it first appear?
As the deadliest pandemic in recorded history – it killed an estimated 50 million people in Europe and the Mediterranean between 1346 and 1353 — it's a question that has plagued scientists and historians for nearly 700 years.
Now, researchers say they've found the genetic ancestor of the Black Death, which today, still infects thousands of people each year. New research, published this month in the journal Nature, provides biological evidence that places the ancestral origins of Black Death in Central Asia, in what is now modern-day Kyrgyzstan.
