This is all interesting, but the second half of the article pretty much says that the headline is a bit of a stretch. The potential date range for the tested bones is wide enough that they could have died after Columbus's return.
> Molly Zuckerman, a bioarchaeologist at Mississippi State University who studies ancient Treponemal disease, praises the researchers’ feat of extracting Treponemal DNA, but notes that the sample date ranges are wide and can’t fully disprove the Columbus hypothesis. “This paper does not provide that kind of golden prize of evidence of syphilis in the pre-Columbian period in the Old World.”
The diversity argument is stronger. Even if you argue that the skeletons post-date Columbus, now you also need to argue that it wasn't just one case that came back but several (or that the understanding of its mutation clock & strains are wrong).
Well, there were more than one sailor on the expedition -- and there's no reason why one sailor couldn't bring back multiple strains. In some cases, a dominant strain drives out the others, but not in all microbes.
It's not like there weren't voyages after Columbus, you know.
The other strains could have come from the other, more numerous voyages after Columbus.
The question is when were the first skeletons in America first shown to have had syphilis, if it's earlier than the 1400's and in Europe there were none, the question is settled.
How do you contract syphilis other than sexually? The Spanish did not bring many women with them in their expeditions, and people that don't bathe are not precisely sex symbols... so it's not hard to figure out what happened.
The fact that Spain still has monuments dedicated to murderers, human traffickers, slave owners, serial child abusers says a lot about a country.
I mean, we have also left the Mayan pyramids standing despite being monuments to sacrificial human murder. Nobody is looking at Conquistadors in the 21st century as some sort of inspiration for the future. History happened, it was significant, over a billion people speak Spanish because of it, for better or for worse. That's all of human history, it's one giant mess. It's frankly amazing that it turned out as well as it did, because war and conquering was always a constant in human history...of course, what we're experiencing now could be a relatively temporary time of stability before we descend into a world war again.
You might be interested in "The Mutiny of the Bounty" by Sir John Barrow for what went on between sailing ships and indigenous peoples of the islands they visited. I.e. quite a lot of sexual congress went on. In fact, one of the reasons for the mutiny was the sailors' unhappiness at being separated from their partners. When the mutineers returned, many of the indigenous women chose to accompany them on their trip to exile on Pitcairn Island.
Or Genghis Khan, Muhammed, the zulus, Egyptians, Assyrians, romans, Aztecs etc etc etc. every single color, creed you pick it. All mass murder and colonization. Human history in a nutshell.
No no, those were all victims of circumstance. Western cultures are uniquely capable of moral reasoning and are therefore more culpable than everyone else. I think that's what pop culture is telling me...
We can also argue that saliors who went on such expedition were not average people, they probably had funding and had resources which they could trade with others for sex.
Also, once they've reached the shore, they wouldn't want to bath after such a long voyage?
You are saying if sailors didn't bath out of habit not because of necessity.
Alfred Crosby's classic history The Columbian Exchange explores how syphilis was perhaps the only major disease that went from the New World to the Old World. Well worth a read even though it's almost 50 years old at this point.
Also I hadn't realized until recently that the "syphilis spread via Columbus" theory was current in the 18th century. There's a section in Voltaire's Candide where it's discussed.
> Until that time, as Fracastoro notes, syphilis had been called the "French disease" (Italian: mal francese) in Italy, Malta, Poland and Germany, and the "Italian disease" in France. In addition, the Dutch called it the "Spanish disease", the Russians called it the "Polish disease", and the Turks called it the "Christian disease" or "Frank (Western European) disease" (frengi).
Its possibly also why mercury is still used in dental fillings white porcelain as well as the more commonly known amalgam fillings. In the US, men used to dip their fingers in lemon juice before insertion into an orifice as the lemon juice could make sores painful. An outbreak in Venice forced the Catholic church to commission some white marble statues and paintings for the public to aspire to, like Michelangelo and Da Vinci during the Renaissance. Bella Donna eye drops were commonly used in the US during the 1930's great depression to dilate their pupils making them look more attractive, but this could also have been to hide Argyll Robertson pupil, pupils that dont dilate due to being a good indicator of neurosyphilis. Sidenote. In medieval times, when testing out couriers for trustworthiness, Bella Donna was mixed into wax seals, the courier would be required to deliver said sealed parchment to a destination where travel time was known and usually to a dark location where the recipient would hold a lantern up to the couriers eyes to see if they constricted or not. If the courier had copied and forged the seal before melting the wax, the bella donna vapours would be inhaled when melting the wax, so it was a secret test or initiation. Secret societys still employ the old ways and the security services also have many tricks up their sleeves as well which have learnt over the years.
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[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 34.3 ms ] thread> Molly Zuckerman, a bioarchaeologist at Mississippi State University who studies ancient Treponemal disease, praises the researchers’ feat of extracting Treponemal DNA, but notes that the sample date ranges are wide and can’t fully disprove the Columbus hypothesis. “This paper does not provide that kind of golden prize of evidence of syphilis in the pre-Columbian period in the Old World.”
Why is this about Columbus, the skeletons are dated mid 1400's - 1600's.
This is quite ridiculous. This is like that one star that is like 80 million years older than the Big Bang, in the estimated age range.
The other strains could have come from the other, more numerous voyages after Columbus.
The question is when were the first skeletons in America first shown to have had syphilis, if it's earlier than the 1400's and in Europe there were none, the question is settled.
The fact that Spain still has monuments dedicated to murderers, human traffickers, slave owners, serial child abusers says a lot about a country.
Also, once they've reached the shore, they wouldn't want to bath after such a long voyage?
You are saying if sailors didn't bath out of habit not because of necessity.
Also I hadn't realized until recently that the "syphilis spread via Columbus" theory was current in the 18th century. There's a section in Voltaire's Candide where it's discussed.
> Until that time, as Fracastoro notes, syphilis had been called the "French disease" (Italian: mal francese) in Italy, Malta, Poland and Germany, and the "Italian disease" in France. In addition, the Dutch called it the "Spanish disease", the Russians called it the "Polish disease", and the Turks called it the "Christian disease" or "Frank (Western European) disease" (frengi).
Could you explain how?