Sunday, May 5, 2013

How did the Black Death End?

How did the Black Death End?

The Black Death gradually subsided since practically everyone had either died or been exposed, but was not gone. There have been various other outbreaks in Europe since the 1300s. 


The Black Death was dependent on its carriers, fleas and rats, both of which it killed. When the supply of fleas and rats became too small, it was no longer supported widely, and ceased to be epidemic. It did return, from time to time, in many places, and remained a problem until the 1950s or so. It is still around today, but is fairly easily treated if it is diagnosed quickly enough. http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_did_the_black_death_end



People tried to figure out how the Black Death ended, they thought that:
  • Since almost everyone died, the fleas and such had no one else to host on and so the fleas died too.
  • Nobody knows. It came/went and then just petered out http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/1077989
Image 1: Bodies of the victims. 


This is a primary source and an archaeologist found these dead bodies in London and i looked like they were buried in late 1348 and 1349. After diagnosing these dead bodies the archaeologist have known that these bones belonged to the victims of the Black Death.

An author of the black death said these words after seeing this "The evidence just isn't there to support it, We ought to be finding great heaps of dead rats in all the waterfront sites but they just aren't there. And all the evidence I've looked at suggests the plague spread too fast for the traditional explanation of transmission by rats and fleas. It has to be person to person – there just isn't time for the rats to be spreading it."
He added: "It was certainly the Black Death but it is by no means certain what that disease was, whether in fact it was bubonic plague." Sloane, who was previously a field archaeologist with the Museum of London, working on many medieval sites, is now attached to English Heritage. He has concluded that the spread of the 1348-49 plague, the worst to hit the capital, was far faster, with an impact far worse than had been estimated previously.
While some suggest that half the city's population of 60,000 died, he believes it could have been as high as two-thirds. Years later, in 1357, merchants were trying to get their tax bill cut on the grounds that a third of all property in the city was lying empty. Sloane spent nearly 10 years researching his book, poring over records and excavation reports. Many records have gone missing, while there was also a documentation shortfall as disaster overwhelmed the city. Names of those buried in three emergency cemeteries seem not to have been recorded.http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/17/black-death-rats-off-hook


  









Friday, May 3, 2013

How did people attempt to deal with the disease?

 How did people attempt to deal with the disease?


People attempted many ways to deal with the disease, some of them are: 

  • Roast the shells of newly laid eggs. Ground the roasted shells into a powder. Chop up the leaves and petals of marigold flowers. Put the egg shells and marigolds into a pot of good ale. Add treacle and warm over a fire. The patient should drink this mixture every morning and night.
  • The streets should be cleaned of all human and animal waste. It should be taken by a cart to a field outside of the village and burnt. 
  • The bodies of the dead people should be buried in deep pits outside of the village and their clothes should also be burnt. http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_did_people_deal_with_the_black_death


During the Black death, bodies were at first buried. but as the mortality rate increased, burying the bodies became too laborious the churches began to burn the bodies. a common nursery rhyme is proof of this.


Nursery Rhyme

Ring around the rosy. A pocket full of posies. Ashes, Ashes! We all fall down!
Ring around the rosy- Rosary beads that gave you God's guidance and help.
A pocket full of posies- Posies were used to mask the odour of decaying bodies. which was thought to cause the plague.

The church burned the deceased when they could no longer bury the bodies. http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_were_body's_disposed_of_in_the_black_death


Image 1: Burying the Bodies. 




Image 1 is a primary source and it shows us people carrying the dead. The church burned the dead because there was no space to bury them, they believed that burying people can reduce the disease from being infected.