A POSSIBLE CONNECTION BETWEEN VERTICAL TRANSHUMANCE AND TEMPORARY PLAGUE RESERVOIRS DURING THE SECOND PLAGUE EPIDEMIC

AO_SCPLOWBSTRACTC_SCPLOWThe Second Plague Pandemic (SPP) ravaged large parts of Eurasia and North Africa between the 14th and 19th centuries. Today, plague is still active in parts of Asia, Africa, and America. One of the hotly debated topics in plague studies is the geographic origins of the recurrent plague waves in Europe after the Black Death (1338-1353): Were they being repeatedly introduced from outside, or did they originate in domestic reservoirs? Here, we build upon recent work arguing for the existence of domestic reservoirs, by exploring a possibility that vertical transhumance by pastoralists could have been a conduit between temporary plague reservoirs and human population centers in Europe. We argue that aspects of pastoral movement and practice, including the utilization of marginal areas and of caves, account for some aspects of plague outbreaks both in the present and in the past. We support this hypothesis using historical sources from the Second Plague Pandemic in Central Europe, and suggest an association between recent and historical land use for pasture and plague outbreaks data.