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Article: `LIKE BLACK SMOKE' THE BLACK DEATH'S JOURNEY.(health)
- Article from:
- Calliope
- Article date:
- March 1, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 Carus Publishing Co. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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"We see death coming into our midst like block smoke," wrote the poet Jeuan Gethin, when plague invaded Wales in March 1349. This "rootless phantom which has no mercy" was especially frightening for those who witnessed it because they knew it was somehow contagious, but no one could holt or explain its relentless spread across Europe.
EASTERN BEGINNINGS
The earliest evidence of the Black Death lies in a cemetery in what was once a prosperous town near Lake Issyk-Kul on the fabled Silk Road in Central Asia. An unusually large number of graves there ore doted 1338 and 1339. Three headstones mentioning the cause of death provide a clue about why so many ...