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Darrera modificació: 2023-11-06
Bases de dades: Sciència.cat
Huebner, Sabine R. - McDonald, Brandon T., "Egypt as a Gateway for the Passage of Pathogens into the Ancient Mediterranea", The Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 54/2 (2023), 163-204.
- Resum
- Ancient Egypt plays a crucial role in the history of infectious disease. An intersection for communication and commerce, Egypt linked disparate civilizations and ecologies, allowing the spread of local epidemics and Mediterranean-wide pandemics. The region south of Egypt developed a pestilential reputation, due in part to Thucydides' account of the Plague of Athens, which traced the disease's origins to that area. Later records are modeled on Thucydides' account, muddling the true origins and scope of later outbreaks. Critical reading of ancient literature and documents—particularly papyri—supplemented with archeological and palaeoscientific evidence, significantly improves our understanding of how Egypt facilitated the circulation of pathogens between the western Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean.
Egypt had a reputation in the Greco-Roman Mediterranean region as a gateway for disease—a source of pestilence that originated south of Egypt and spread north via the Nile River, an important transport axis, from the regions of inner Africa south of the first Nile cataracts or through the Red Sea (Fig. 1). Thucydides was not the first to attribute the origin of an epidemic to northeast Africa, specifically Aithiopia, but his narrative inspired subsequent ancient authors who imitated his account when reporting on the “plagues” of their time. It is important to investigate the veracity of those later accounts that also point to “Aithiopia” as the origin of pestilence. This is only possible with thorough investigation of all available sources, including the latest archaeological and archaeogenetic discoveries, as well as analysis of the Egyptian papyrological evidence.
Of special significance is the role Egypt and the Red Sea most likely played in the spread of the Justinianic Plague (541–544 c.e.), the initial wave of the First Plague Pandemic. Archaeogenetics have confirmed that the pathogenic agent of the Justinianic Plague and the First Plague Pandemic in the centuries that followed was true plague (either in bubonic, pneumonic, or septicemic form), caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis. Knowledge of the pathogen responsible for the pandemic allows confident hypotheses relating to the epidemiology and ecology of plague, including environmental parameters, carriers, vectors, and the bacterium's ultimate origin. Conversely, cases where the responsible pathogen is unknown, such as the Antonine Plague, rely heavily on limited and speculative analyses using ancient written evidence for retrospective diagnosis.1
This article delves into the discussion about disease events in the ancient Mediterranean region, with a specific focus on Egypt and civilizations of the western Indian Ocean (including the Red Sea). Critically examining the archaeology and scientific findings, exhaustively considering the papyrological sources, and disentangling literary topoi from actual observations significantly improves our understanding of Egypt's role in the circulation of pathogens between Asia, Africa, and the Mediterranean.
- Matèries
- Medicina - Pesta i altres malalties
- URL
- https://direct.mit.edu/jinh/article/54/2/163/118031 ...
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