A deadly export
The horrific bubonic plague, also known as the Black Death, killed millions of Europeans during the 14th century and is thought to have spread via trade ships and busy port towns. However, recent research has suggested that strains of the disease might have travelled even further. Scientists studying victims of a deadly plague in 19th-century China and the European victims of the 14th-century Black Death have found a startling similarity in the DNA pattern of the two diseases. This suggests the plague not only could have travelled across the Silk Roads heading east but may have been dormant for centuries before being unleashed in another outbreak, long after the original Black Death.