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In the reading it was talking about the outbreak of Black Death. I decided to look at the outbreak in Europe. If you look at this link
it will show you the outbreak in Europe. It says that it started in Italy and went to the northwest area of Europe. I also found a quote from wikipedia that Agnolo di Tura wrote:
"They died by the hundreds, both day and night, and all were thrown in … ditches and covered with earth. And as soon as those ditches were filled, more were dug. And I, Agnolo di Tura … buried my five children with my own hands … And so many died that all believed it was the end of the world."
I was surprised at the fact that animals were also affected by the plague. I had never heard of livestock being affected by the plague. Also, I had never heard anything about Anthrax. I didn't think that Anthrax existed back then; I thought it was a recent invention. But evidently it comes from cows. ?? I also think how it's odd that people would blame themselves with the plague. I guess this is sort of similar to the Mandate of Heaven in China. If natural disasters are happening and things aren't going your way then it must be your fault.
It occurred to me that many people today get sick during the winter. Since the previous reading talked about a small "ice age" does this have anything to do with the spread of the Black Plague?
Another thing that I was interested in is the Black Plague now. I know it has dropped off considerably since its time, but bacteria evolve and I'm just wondering if it's still around today. I found this site and it claims that ~15 people in the US today get the disease.
I decided to look up anthrax, one of the diseases believed to be part of the Age of Plague. This Wikipedia article explains that Anthrax is a disease caused by bacteria entering a cut in the skin or by eating animal tissue. Anthrax is a disease that animals have passed to humans, and during the Age of Plague many animals were affected, so it is likely that anthrax was part of the AOP. Anthrax is best known for turning patches of an infected person's skin black. Here is a picture of anthrax bacteria and here is an anthrax sore (not for the squeamish).
I have 2 questions about the reading. It mentioned that the living would pile the bodies of the dead in pits. It also mentioned Rome was affected by the plauge. Since Roman's weren't supposed to bury bodies inside of the city, where did they put the bodies? I was also curious as to what a "sheikh" was, since it said that a sheikh delayed Ibn Battuta's banquet. I researched this on this website and I found that a sheikh is an Arabic term meaning elder. It implies someone who is also in an honorable position. I also found that a daughter or wife of a sheikh is called a Sheikhah.
Since the reading kept talking about what the plague may or not have been made up of, I decided to go look it up. It is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, according to Wikipedia. This bacterium has three different forms, all of which have been responsible for different plagues, though the main one was the Bubonic Plague. As we know, it is transmitted from flea bites, and it also uses rats as hosts. It infects the lymph nodes, which is a part of the immune system. Interestingly enough, I saw that the bacterium could possibly used for biological warfare in a terrorist attack.
I was interested in learning more about the flagellants. In the reading, it mentions how the Black Death inspired some people to organize ceremonies of "self-flagellation" across Europe. They wanted to prevent the occurrence of God's "anger." I decided to look more into flagellants and this siteof link explains the role that the flagellants had during the Black (Bubonic) Plague.
In the reading it mentions how the Mongols were struck badly with the Black death. I wanted to find out more on how they were hit with it. I came across here and found that the Mongols (not only rats) helped bring the plague to Europe. It says that one of the things they traded was furs and when they saw empty villages, they took the furs and further spread the disease. Also, it mentioned the besieging of Caffa as it did in the reading. Finally, it mentioned how many ships would be empty because everyone was dead,and curious people would come and see them, but then those people got the plague too.
Pestilence- an epidemic of something that is highly contagiousVisitations
Paradigms – a typical example of something
What is anthrax?
“Anthrax is an acute infectious disease caused by the spore-forming bacterium Bacillus anthracis”
It says that anthrax usually occurs in Cattle, Sheep, goats, etc, but occurs in humans when exposed to these animals.
Antrax Link and information
What is Genoese – A person from Genoa (follow this link) a city in northern Italy that participated in the crusades.
Map of Genoa
Volga Valley – the Volga Longest River in Europe, western Russia, so the Volga Valley is the area around the river.
Wikipedia Volga
Archdiocese – “the area for which an archbishop has ecclesiastical responsibility” – definition from Word
Link to the Archdiocese of York
"But they ordered corpses to be
placed in catapults and lobbed into the city in the hope that the intolerable stench would kill everyone inside."
This is a part of a quote from page. Working on the assumption that this is a direct translation, I wonder if the mongols, who loaded the bodies into catapults, had any concept of germ theory. What I mean to say is that I wonder if this was an intentional act of biological warfare, or if this was merely a terror attack that ended up being a highly lethal tactic.
One thing that caught my eye in the reading was the mention of Anthrax. I had heard before about it having the possibility for a biological weapon, but I didn't know much about it. This Wikipedia article gives a good deal of information on the topic. The article talks about how the bacteria can form into dormant spores that await a new host when their current host is threatened. These spores can be transfered to a new host through eating of the original host, cuts, or just being breathed in.
In the reading it also talked about the Mongols assaulting a colony in "Crimea". I was wondering where that was, so I found a picture with the location of Crimea (Dark Green).
The reading mentions other diseases that could have been the cause for some of the symptoms or for the disease itself. Two epidemiologists from the University of Liverpool proposed a theory that rather than being caused by a bacteria, the plauge was instead caused by and Ebola-like virus. This would explain the longer incubation period (up to 30 days) and how the disease may have acctually been transfered by human contact, which would explain its spread in places like Iceland, where rats were very uncommon. The Anthrax argument was also cited, claiming that infected cow meat was sold to the people, causing the spread of the disease. People for the bubonic theroy claim that it was due to droplet transmission that the disease spread so quickly.
In the reading, it mentioned anthrax being a possible cause of the plague. I wasn't sure what it was, so I looked it up and found on wikipedia that it is an acute infectious disease caused by the bacterium Bacillus anthracis and that it is caused by cuts in the skin.
I also wanted to look up Ibn Battuta to find out more about his relation to the plague. I couldn't find much, so instead I looked up a map of his travels. Here it is.
Also, in the description of the picture on page 454, it talked about flagellants. I wasn't sure what they were so I looked them up and found that they were people that practice an extreme form of mortification of their own flesh by whipping themselves. (wikipedia) They did this, according to the reading, to wipe out their sin which they believed was causing the black death.
Something that really interested me was about how diseases change. I want to find out more about this because if diseases change so quickly, why did everyone involved in the Black Plague have pretty much the same disease they died from. Is it possible to change the symptoms of diseases that have been transformed and how do people know that the organisms have been transformed? Who did people see when they had all of these problems, or did they just accept that they were going to die of the plague? Also I am confused about if the bodies smelled so bad that a person would die, how do they deal with the bodies? Over time they will just get worse and worse so I don't see how that is possible.
when doing the reading, i became interested in what would happen to the people who were infected with the plague. i wanted to know the time line of events that led to their death from the plague (their first symptoms, etc.) from this link i learned more about the symptoms of the plague and also how the plague traveled, how it grew, and where it is most commonly found.
there was also a question in the book about the link between the climate and disease, so i decided to look that up as well. from this website i learned that warmer climates lead to increased rate of bubonic plague. this lead me to think that the bubonic plague increased in the medieval warm period.
In the reading I became interested in how people handled having the plague, questions like: did they segregate themselves from others without the disease? Did they continue to try to function normally in society? I found this link http://www.hero.ac.uk/uk/research/archives/2001/bubonic_plague_is_innocen1184.cfm
That says quarantine was useless in controlling the plague. I couldn't find any ways that the plague was controlled other than keeping all infected in the same ward (a strategy used by the Arabs years earlier). I could only find ways to treat the plague today, which is of course to use antibiotics. Detailed here is the modern view of the disease:http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/plague/
I did a bit of research on methods to prevent the plague. I found very little, as those who had the plague typically would try to continue to work, remain bedridden at home, or be put in quarantine. http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dq/history.htm#1
Says that the word quarantine was first used to describe how ships pulling in to Venice from an infected port were forced to stay at sea for 40 days before pulling in. I found another article in my first post that said although segregating people infected with the plague was done (similar to what the Arabs were doing years earlier) it did not actually help prevent the spread of the disease. I cannot find that article now.
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