Issyk-Kul Plague Graves Revealed Origins

Researchers in 2022 traced the likely origin of the Black Death to the Chuy Valley, near Lake Issyk-Kul in modern-day Kyrgyzstan, a Central Asian trading region linked with the Silk Road. Syriac inscriptions found on tombstones at two cemeteries noted a sudden increase in deaths from “pestilence” during 1338 and 1339. DNA from the teeth of seven buried individuals showed the presence of Yersinia pestis. Genetic analysis revealed that the strain was the direct ancestor of those that ravaged Europe and the Middle East from 1346, about eight years later.

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