Biodiversity, pollen and the Black Deatg

The Conversation has an interesting article which links modern concerns with historic events by looking at the vidence of the impact of the Black Death on biodiversity in the rural environment. The results are perhaps surprising, and maybe cautionary. 

The article can be read at The Black Death’s counterintuitive effect: as human numbers fell, so did plant diversity

Linked to it is an article from 2022 which I think I have shared before on this blog, but which is worth sharing again. This also looks at plant based evidence from lakes and wetlands in the form of pollen to attempt to identify regional variations across Europe in the impact of the Black Death, and suggests some significant localising features.

The research is outlined at The Black Death was not as widespread or catastrophic as long thought – new study

In addition to these two scientific studies using microscopic evidence there is new archaeological evidence about the pandemic with the identification of one of twelve plague burial pits recorded as being dug around the German city of Erfurt. This discovery is reported by the Daily Galaxy in Discovered After 700 Years, Archaeologists Found a Massive Pit in Germany Full of Human Remains