Study links 14th-century volcanic eruptions to famine that boosted grain trade, helping spread the Black Death from Asia to Europe, killing millions.
Volcanic eruptions that led to famine and increased grain imports were a contributing factor during the Middle Ages to the spread of the plague from Asia to Europe, and to the spread of the deadliest pandemic in human history across the continent, according to a new study.
Recent research has shown that the pandemic that killed a large portion of humanity in the 14th century, also known as the Black Death or the Great Plague , most likely originated around 1338 at the foot of the barren Tian Shan Mountains, near Lake Issyk-Kul, in present-day Kyrgyzstan .
Then a genetically different strain of these bacteria reached the shores of the Black Sea via trade routes.
The fleas carried the Yersinia pestis bacteria in their intestines and transmitted it by biting mice or rodents, which they then spread, before they started biting humans when the number of mice was no longer sufficient.
Plague-infected fleas arrived at European ports on ships loaded with grain, bringing disease and death to the continent starting in 1347.
Within six years, the plague killed between 30 and 60 percent of Europe’s population, about 25 million people.
A study conducted by the teams of Professors Ulf Buntgen from Cambridge University in the United Kingdom and Martin Bauch from Leipzig University in Germany, and published this week in the journal "Communications Earth and Environment," addressed the reason for the disease's severe and widespread outbreak across Europe at that particular time.
In their study, the researchers relied on what is known as dendrochronology, which is based on the morphology of tree rings, to study the forests of the Spanish Pyrenees Mountains, and discovered a lack of wooding in the walls of their cells over consecutive years.
Woodworking is the process by which plant cells are converted into wood, and it is rare for there to be a shortage of it for consecutive years.
The study concluded that this lack of timber was due to the fact that temperatures and light in the years 1345 and 1346 were much lower than usual.
The researchers then reconstructed the climate data for that period before comparing it with contemporary accounts to prove that these deficits were most likely caused by one or more volcanic eruptions in 1345 whose locations have not been identified.
This climate change caused by volcanic eruptions had disastrous consequences, as it damaged crops and led to the onset of famine .
Professor Martin Pausch reminded in a statement issued by Cambridge University that powerful Italian cities such as Venice, Genoa and Pisa established "trade routes between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea" more than a century ago.
He added that these methods enabled it to "combat famine very effectively, but ultimately led to a much greater disaster."
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