Twenty-five skeletons unearthed in England and dated to the mid-14th century seem to be rewriting the history books.
Excavated in Charterhouse Square north of London, the remains of 25 people who likely died of the infamous bubonic plague that killed thousands in the city in 1348 have revealed that the pandemic likely spread through the air and not from rats, The Guardian reported.
Scientists say the infection was pneumonic, spreading from one human to another as it settled in the lungs. This theory directly contradicts what children learn in school: that the Black Death spread through the rat population and transferred to people.
"As an explanation [rat fleas] for the Black Death in its own right, it simply isn't good enough," Dr. Tim Brooks of Public Health England in Porton Down told The Guardian. "It cannot spread fast enough from one household to the next to cause the huge number of cases that we saw during the Black Death epidemics."
Brooks will share his theory in a Channel 4 documentary, Secret History: The Return of the Black Death, airing next Sunday.
DNA tests of the 25 skeletons, some of which were buried in 1348-1350 and others in the early to mid-1400s, offered a treasure trove of information about the people's lives, including what they ate and how they worked, Reuters reported.
The skeletons were found in layers and seem to come from the original Black Death epidemic in 1348-1350 as well as later outbreaks in 1361 and the early 15th century, according to The Associated Press.
Scientists have extracted the disease bacterium, Yersinia pestis, from the skeletons, discovering that the 14th-century strain is almost a perfect DNA match for a modern plague that recently killed 60 people in Madagascar.
The Black Death came from central Asia in the fall of 1348, leaving six out of every 10 people in London dead by the next spring.
Unearthed last year during work on a new rail line, the burial site discovery brings new insight to a 660-year-old mystery. According to records, tens of thousands of Black Death victims are likely buried in London's Farringdon district. Archeologists will continue to excavate the area to find more bodies.
"This discovery is a hugely important step forward in documenting and understanding Europe's most devastating pandemic," said Jay Carver, lead archaeologist working on the new Crossrail line, as quoted by BBC News.
"Further excavations will follow to see if--as we expect--we are coming across a much bigger mass burial trench."
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