Finding pathogens from long past epidemics -Aztecs

[jim mcnamara]

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-017-0446-6
A.Vasgene et al., Salmonella enterica genomes from victims of a major sixteenth-century epidemic in Mexico

Popular Science:
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo...ave-caused-massive-aztec-epidemic-study-finds

Examining DNA from the calculus (plaque) on human teeth from skeletal remains allows us to infer what the people ate, and indirectly what pathogens they have consumed. There is a newer DNA fragment matching algorithm that allowed the researchers to pinpoint a specific, known deadly pathogen in the remains of 10 epidemic victims. Previously the bacterial DNA fragments were virtually impossible to identify - meaning assign to a known species.

This allows informed speculation - one of the causes of the destruction of the Aztec Empire was a massive epidemic with two occurrences:

It was one of the most devastating epidemics in human history. The 1545 outbreak, and a second wave in 1576, killed an estimated 7 million to 17 million people and contributed to the destruction of the Aztec Empire.

 

[Bystander]

Interesting; perhaps the "butler's" innocent after all.