Genomic analyses identified Yersinia pestis DNA in 1,500-year-old dental remains from a mass grave in Jerash, Jordan, near the Justinian Plague epicenter. The evidence directly links Y. pestis to the first pandemic (AD 541–750) and resolves longstanding uncertainty about the pandemic's causative agent. The identification confirms mass-mortality context and demonstrates the power of ancient DNA to answer historical epidemiological questions. The finding highlights plague's continued global circulation despite rarity, and notes recent modern U.S. cases including a July pneumonic plague fatality in Arizona and a recent positive case in California.
The landmark discovery, led by an interdisciplinary team at the University of South Florida and Florida Atlantic University, with collaborators in India and Australia, identified Yersinia pestis, the microbe that causes plague, in a mass grave at the ancient city of Jerash, Jordan, near the pandemic's epicenter. The groundbreaking find definitively links the pathogen to the Justinian Plague marking the first pandemic (AD 541-750), resolving one of history's long-standing mysteries.
For centuries, historians have deliberated on what caused the devastating outbreak that killed tens of millions, reshaped the Byzantine Empire and altered the course of Western civilization. Despite circumstantial evidence, direct proof of the responsible microbe had remained elusive -- a missing link in the story of pandemics. Two newly published papers led by USF and FAU provide these long-sought answers, offering new insight into one of the most consequential episodes in human history.
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