Researchers: Rats Didn't Spread Black Death, Humans Did

Posted by samzenpus on Sunday March 30, 2014 @01:25AM from the won't-somebody-please-think-of-the-rats? dept.

concertina226 (2447056) writes "Scientists studying the human remains of plague victims found during excavations for London's new Crossrail train line have concluded that humans spread the Black Death rather than rats, a fact that could rewrite history books. University of Keele scientists, working together with Crossrail's lead archaeologist Jay Carver and osteologists from the Museum of London, analyzed the bones and teeth of 25 skeletons dug up by Crossrail. They found DNA of Yersinia pestis, which is responsible for the Black Death, on the teeth of some of the victims."

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Virus? Plague? by K.+S.+Kyosuke · 2014-03-30 01:34 · Score: 4, Insightful

Now I'm not sure they got even the disease right! How am I supposed to believe they got the minutiae of the actual new findings right?

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Ezekiel 23:20
"Found Yersinia Pestis DNA on victim's teeth" by rmdingler · 2014-03-30 01:48 · Score: 4, Insightful

Famine was widespread. Perhaps this one group unearthed during construction developed a taste for the rat.
Not normally considered a delicacy, when it's rat or nothing, well, sorry Templeton.

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Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway