The Black Death

Citations:

1402 BCE

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/206309.php
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/01/health/01plague.html
http://academic.mu.edu/meissnerd/plague.htm
http://www.themiddleages.net/plague.html
http://asianhistory.about.com/od/asianenvironmentalhistory/p/Black-Death-In-Asia-Bubonic-Plague.htm

Mesopotamia

1347 BCE

The port of Egypt - Alexandria through Constantinople ports on the Black Sea. An plague is said to reached East Africa between 1347 to 1409. The plague is said to have killed approximately an 40% of the population. Egyptian scholar Al-Mazriqi noted that "more than three hundred tribes all perished without apparent reason in their summer and winter encampments, in the course of pasturing their flocks and during their seasonal migration."

Europe

1347 BCE

The Plague reached Europe (Sicily) in 1347 via the Black Sea. A group of traders from Genoa arrived in Sicily In October of 1347, fresh from a voyage to China. The Plague is said to have killed one-third of Europe's population 1347-1350. The Plague killed approximtey 70-200 million people before it faded off in the late 1350s.

The Middle East

1345 BCE

Ibn Battuta - " the great traveler noted that as of 1345, "the number that died daily in Damascus [Syria] had been two thousand," The plague is said to have hit Mecca in 1349 due to pilgrimage.

China

1333 BCE

China boost one of the most important and busiest trade market during the middle ages. The plague primarily travel via the Silk road and the dead sea - The busiest trade route during the middle ages. China lot approximately 50% of China's population to the plague from 1330s to 1340s before it reached Europe.

Central Asia

1332 BCE

The Plague originated in Central Asia and spread through Western Asia through Nortern India. "Ibn al-Wardi, a Syrian writer who would later die of the plague himself in 1348, recorded that the Black Death came out of "The land of Darkness" (Central Asia)".

First Sighting

1320 BCE

The orgin of the plague can be traced back to the Gobi Desert of Mongolia in the 1320s. http://academic.mu.edu/meissnerd/plague.htm

Route and Spreading

1301 BCE

The plague is speculated to have originated in Central Asia in the early 1300s. Asia, due to it's vast trade interactions with other regions made it an easy host and hot spot. The plague then spread through the Silk Road and via trading ships that carried rodents and fleas. The Plague eventually spread through Asia, The Middle East, Mesopotamia, India and eventually to Europe through to trade interactions. Please see attached Map

Signs and Symptoms of the Disease

1301 BCE

The three diseases that the plague consisted of were:
1. Bubonic plague - affected the lymph nodes.
2. Pneumonic plague - affected the lungs.
3. Septicemia - infection of the blood. The diseases were cause by the Yersnia pests bacteria and spread through flea and black rats (rodents). Signs and symptoms of the disease included swollen lymph nodes (buboes) in the Bubonic plague, black skin patches of the fingers and toes in septicemia and bloody cough in pneumonic plague.

What is the Black Death?

1300 BCE

The Black death often refer to as "The Plague" - was one of the most deadly recorded pandemic in history. The disease affected and killed millions of people between 1300-1409 CE. The Plague spread through central and western Asia through the Mediterrean and Europe. The disease killed more than 25 million people, approximately one-fourth of the world's population.