Alexander Herbig (Max Planck Institute for Archaeogenomics, Leipzig), will give a guest lecture at the invitation of the ELTE Institute of Archaeological Sciences.

Plague is one of the most devastating infectious diseases in human history. Its causative agent, the bacterium Yersinia pestis, has influenced human populations and societies for thousands of years. But how did plague emerge, how did it spread, and what determined the course of the great plague pandemics?

Archaeogenetics offers a new way to explore these questions. Traces of DNA and sometimes entire genomes of past pathogens can be recovered from archaeological human remains. This allows us to reconstruct the history of plague not only through written sources, but also through genetics.

The lecture will trace the path of plague from the earliest known cases in the Stone Age to the great plague pandemics of human history. A particular focus will be the so-called Justinianic Plague of the sixth century, which marked the beginning of the first historically documented plague pandemic. Drawing on recent research, the lecture will explore how plague strains spread across Europe and what impact the pandemic had on the people of the time.

Alexander Herbig is a research group leader in the Department of Archaeogenetics at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig. His research focuses on the evolution of pathogens such as the plague bacterium, as well as on developing new methods to identify their DNA in archaeological remains. By analysing ancient pathogen genomes, his group investigates the emergence, spread, and evolution of infectious diseases throughout human history.