Jan 23, 2026
3 min read
The Plague of Justinian killed millions of people in the Byzantine Empire between 541 and 750. A scientific team analyzed human remains and ancient DNA to reconstruct how one of the oldest plagues developed and its victims...
The Plague of Justinian killed millions of people in the Byzantine Empire between 541 and 750. Now, for the first time, a scientific team has used human remains and ancient DNA to reveal how one of the world's oldest plagues developed and who its victims were.
The city of Jerash, in modern-day Jordan, preserves the most convincing evidence known so far on the human impact of the Plague of Justinian, considered the first major pandemic in the Mediterranean world. An international team led by the University of South Florida (USA) has identified a mass grave with approximately 230 individuals buried rapidly and simultaneously between the 6th and 7th centuries, in the middle of the Byzantine period. The discovery confirms that the city suffered an episode of catastrophic mortality associated with this disease. The study wasjust published in the Journal of Archaeological Science.
Analysis of ancient DNA has identified a single strain of Yersinia pestis, the bacterium that causes bubonic plague, showing that all the people died in a single epidemic episode."We wanted to go beyond identifying the pathogen and focus on the affected people, who they were, how they lived, and what it meant to die during an epidemic in a real city," said study principal investigator Race H.Y.Jiang explains.
The remains were discovered at the old Jerash Racecourse, an abandoned urban site that, after no longer being used for racing and industrial activities, was exceptionally transformed into a mass burial ground.The bodies were deposited over days with hardly any cremation on layers of ceramic waste, researchers have related to conditions of extreme health crisis.
Unlike other alleged mass burials attributed to ancient epidemics, the Jerash case has been confirmed archaeologically and genetically."The site of Jerash turns a genetic signal into a human story about who died and how a city suffered a crisis," says Jiang.
The study describes the burial as a single death event, very different from the usual urban cemeteries that were created gradually over time.In Jerash, the rapid and dense accumulation of bodies suggests that the city was overwhelmed by the number of deaths.This is the first mass burial of the Justinian plague that has been confirmed by biomolecular methods in the eastern Mediterranean.
This discovery provides direct evidence of human access to the pandemic, which, according to historical sources, caused millions of deaths in the Byzantine Empire.Until now, the lack of well-chronological archaeological contexts has made it difficult to assess the exact impact of the disease on the urban population.
Beyond identifying the pathogen, the investigation focused on the people who died.Isotopic analyzes performed on teeth and bones reveal that the victims shared a diet typical of the region, based on local resources, but showed remarkable diversity in the signatures of water consumed during childhood, an indication of different geographic origins.
Research data shows that those who were buried are a mobile population integrated into the life of the city of Jerash.According to the researchers, under normal conditions this movement is diluted in traditional burials, but the health crisis represents people with different life paths in one place, creating visible patterns of movement that are usually observed.
Genetic analysis of the maternal lineage confirms this difference in the expected boundaries of the Byzantine Levant.All individuals were infected with the same epidemic strain, reinforcing the interpretation of a mass death caused by a synchronous disease.
At the time of the plague, Jerash had already begun a demographic decline from the population peak reached in the 3rd century.A combination of urban density, active commercial networks and social change may have increased the vulnerability of cities to the spread of disease.
"Justinian's plague spread through densely populated cities and shifting networks, highlighting social inequality and vulnerability," Jiang said.
The authors of the study remember that epidemics are not only biological phenomena, but also social."Pandemics are not only biological phenomena, but also social phenomena that show who is vulnerable and why," says the researcher.By reconstructing an ancient epidemic from human remains and their archaeological context, the research provides a historical perspective that connects the past and the present.
Bioarchaeological signatures during the Plague of Justinian (541-750 CE) in Jerash (ancient Gerasa), Jordan.
