The Whole Tooth: Teeth Shed Light on Black Death Mystery

By Dr. Robert Kelly, D.M.D.

As it turns out, teeth sometimes have some value even after the mouth is done using them. For example, did you know to practice root canals in dental school we collected extracted teeth from surgery offices to have “real teeth” to use in learning root canals? Or I’m sure everybody knows that CSI style detectives can use teeth to identify deceased bodies with DNA analysis. Well how about using teeth to help piece together important events in history?
An article in the BBC news highlights how ancient teeth have allowed researchers to pinpoint the origin of one of the great calamities and mysteries of medieval history… the origin of the bubonic plague. Otherwise known as the “Black Death,” the plague killed tens of millions of humans in Europe, Asia, and north Africa over 600 years ago. The 14th century disaster certainly puts COVID to shame as it is considered one of the worst human disease experiences in history. It wiped out 1/3 of the population of Europe during that century.
A research team from the University of Stirling in Scotland and Germany’s Max Planck Institute and University of Tubingen discovered that the disease likely began in Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia in the 1330s. They were able to analyze DNA samples from that time of skeletons in cemeteries and lo and behold found the plague bacterium, Yersinia pestis, in them. They chose that area to analyze after they discovered that there was a significant spike in burials there in 1338 and 1339.
Yersinia pestis is the bacteria that causes the disease which was named because of one of the symptoms it causes: painful, swollen lymph nodes or as they called them “buboes.” It was also called Black Death because it led to gangrene, blackening, and death of body parts like fingers and toes. I know, pretty bad stuff.
One of the researchers, Dr. Philip Slavin, explained “Our study puts to rest one of the biggest and most fascinating questions in history and determines when and where the single most notorious and infamous killer of humans began.”
Although researchers have cautioned that a bigger sample size is needed to confirm the findings it is compelling to think this mystery may have finally been solved. Their research was recently published in the journal Nature.
Well, sorry for the rather gruesome topic of this month’s article. This may have been a good topic closer to Halloween than July 4th! On that note, enjoy this beautiful summer weather that has finally reached us and relax and rejoice and give thanks this July 4th holiday. You know, for all the problems and challenges (and there are many) we face, we can also sometimes think “well, it could be worse…” Indeed, after reading about this it is safe to say I’ll take living right now in this moment over the 14th century.