Human–Bovine Plagues in the Early Middle Ages

Human–Bovine Plagues in the Early Middle Ages

Two independent molecular clock analyses ( ) reveal that measles ( ) diverged from rinderpest ( ) This evidence, when conjoined with written accounts of non-Justinianic plagues in 569–570 and 986–988 and zoo-archaeological discoveries regarding early medieval mass bovine mortalities, suggests that a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of interdisciplinary history 2015-06, Vol.46 (1), p.1-38
Main Author: Newfield, Timothy P.
Format: Article
Language:eng
Subjects:
Ancestry
Black Death
Buffalo
Casualties
Cattle
Communicable diseases
Communicable diseases in animals
Epidemics
Europe
Europeans
Evaluation
History
History of medicine
Measles
Middle age
Middle Ages
Mortality
Paleobiology
Plague
Rinderpest
Risk factors
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Summary:Two independent molecular clock analyses ( ) reveal that measles ( ) diverged from rinderpest ( ) This evidence, when conjoined with written accounts of non-Justinianic plagues in 569–570 and 986–988 and zoo-archaeological discoveries regarding early medieval mass bovine mortalities, suggests that a now-extinct morbillivirus, ancestral to and , broke out episodically in the early Middle Ages, causing large mortalities in both species. Tentative diagnoses of an – ancestor help to untangle early medieval accounts of human–bovine disease and facilitate an assessment of the consequences of the 569–570 and 986–988 plagues.
ISSN:0022-1953
1530-9169