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  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

The Black Death devastated parts of Europe — but spared others

Analysis of fossil pollen suggests that populations in some areas grew despite the plague’s rampage.
The Bagno Kusowo peatland is one of best-preserved Baltic raised bogs in Northern Poland.

Ancient pollen collected from this peat bog in northern Poland hints that the Black Death did not ravage the local population. Credit: Mariusz Lamentowicz

The fourteenth-century pandemic known as the Black Death might not have been as devastating as was previously thought, an analysis of ancient pollen suggests1.

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Nature 602, 550 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-00435-6

References

  1. Izdebski, A. et al. Nature Ecol. Evol. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-021-01652-4 (2022).

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