The Black Plague began it’s march across Europe in London in the Autumn of 1348.  Within a short time, 60 percent of London’s population had succumbed to disease and within a decade approximately 25 million Europeans were dead in what is often regarded as the worst human catastrophe in history.  Recently a London construction project unearthed a mass grave of 25 skeletons that were plague victims from which we are learing more about life in the middle ages, the disease and how it spread.

a mass grave of plague victims

Two things stand out, one is that the general state of Londoners’ health at that time was poor.  The other is that the disease may have been more “pneumonic” than “bubonic”, in other words it may not have been spread exclusively by the bites of fleas from infected rats, but  also by the coughing and sneezing of infected persons.  Evidence suggests that the disease could not have spread so quickly simply by flea bites and that another mode of transmission was likely.  Why does this matter?  Because to better understand the past is to better understand the present.  To know one’s history is to know oneself.  Read more here if you wish:

Via The Volokh Conspracy (WaPo):  “Isn’t it bubonic…don’t you think?”

Via The Guardian (UK): “Black death skeletons reveal pitiful life of 14th-century  Londoners”