Earliest plague in Britain in Bronze Age teeth

[Duncan Head]

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/may/30/oldest-evidence-of-plague-in-britain-found-in-4000-year-old-human-remains

[Imperial Dave]

speaking of which I am on antibiotics that are normally used for treating this

[Erpingham]

Sounds nasty.  Here's wishing for a speedy recovery.

[Imperial Dave]

treating the symptoms not the underlying cause unfortunately

[Ian61]

Interesting, I am out of date on some of this I had thought the Justinian plague was the first we knew about. On a similar topic I have been listening to an excellent series on the radio called Pathogenisis which makes links between history and pathogens. Whilst I knew some of the topics from my reading around history and/or science there were still some interesting new bits I hadn't known.

[Ian61]

Should have said series is actually an abridged version of the book of the same name by Dr Jonathan Kennedy that I think I will have to get and read in full.

[Imperial Dave]

thanks for the info Ian. I am generally quite interested in stuff like this

[Erpingham]

Should have said series is actually an abridged version of the book of the same name by Dr Jonathan Kennedy that I think I will have to get and read in full.

Does he resolve "Sweating Sickness" by any chance?  It's one of the great disease mysteries of the medieval world.

[Ian61]

Does he resolve "Sweating Sickness" by any chance?  It's one of the great disease mysteries of the medieval world.

Not in what I have heard - but I have only listened to the first 4 episodes so far, there is a fifth episode in my in tray and I don't know how many total but I know he is going to get to last century and current Covid stuff.

[Ian61]

Just 5 brief episodes, I have sent for the book as I suspect it will contain far more, will post elsewhere when it comes. One of my all time heroes, John Snow gets a mention - you will probably not know/remember that I used to use a photo of the handleless pump in front of the John Snow Pub as my avatar on the forum.

[Nick Harbud]

...and I thought it was just the way you walked.

 

[Imperial Dave]

Tsk tsk

[Erpingham]

...and I thought it was just the way you walked.

 

I thought that was lawnmowers?