History books say that the infamous plague epidemic in the 14th century killed at least half of Europe’s population.But recent scientific research casts doubt on that figure.
health
May 25, 2022
Allegorical representation of the 1540 plague Science History Images/Alamy
Referring to the outbreak of the plague, Alessia Massi of the Max Planck Institute for Human History Sciences in Jena, Germany, said, “What historians mostly tell us is that half of the people who lived in Europe were black. He died of a fatal disease,” he said. Caused by the plague bacillus in the 14th century. “But it’s hard to say if that’s true.” Masi’s recent work is certainly thought-provoking.
The 50% figure relies heavily on written records, but these are sparse and mainly come from urban areas in a few countries such as the UK, France, Italy and the Netherlands. Over 50% mortality was endured. “For London, the impact was terrible,” Masi says. However, in the 14th century, only 10% of the people lived in towns and cities. To fully measure the impact, we need to look at the rural population.
Mortality records in these areas are sparse at best, so Masi and her colleagues turned to pollen. Their hypothesis was that if the plague did indeed wipe out half the population, the pollen records would show it. Demand plummeted, labor shortages crept in, and agriculture was abandoned, turning it into a wild forest. “If many people die, there won’t be enough people to plow the fields, so what we did was…
