Descrizione del progetto
Imparare dalla peste del passato per combattere le epidemie future
La peste, una minaccia persistente nel corso della storia, lascia perplessi gli scienziati a causa di epidemie e sparizioni ricorrenti. In questo contesto, il progetto Synergy-Plague, finanziato dal CER, verterà sulla recrudescenza della peste nell’Asia centrale del XIV secolo e sulle sue successive ondate in tutta l’Eurasia. In particolare, si analizzeranno i fattori ambientali, biologici e sociali alla base della sua diffusione e della sua regressione. Condotta da quattro team interdisciplinari, Synergy-Plague integrerà diverse metodologie, dalla dendrocronologia all’analisi del DNA antico. Analizzando documentazione storica e dati scientifici, cercherà di rispondere ai motivi di perplessità suscitati dalla peste. Questo sforzo collaborativo promette non solo una comprensione più approfondita delle precedenti epidemie di peste, ma anche intuizioni preziose per combattere le epidemie future.
Obiettivo
Synergy-Plague is a multi-disciplinary project to bring our knowledge and understanding of plague, past and present, to new heights. Focussing on the environmental, biological, and societal aspects of plague outbreaks in Eurasia between circa 1300 and 1900 CE, it will address four main questions:
(1) Why/how did plague re-emerge in 14th century Central Asia? (2) Why/how did plague re-occur and spread in Eurasia after the Black Death? (3) Why/how did clinical and demographic patterns of plague infection differ across space and time? (4) Why/how did plague disappear from Europe and the Middle East in the 18th and 19th centuries?
Our project is based on the hypothesis that plague waves and clinical differences resulted from unique alignments of multiple events: environmental (climatic and soil-chemical), biological (from individual to ecosystem) and societal (demographic, socio-economic and political).
Four PIs from the natural sciences and humanities, together with their team members, will jointly study how plague re-emerged in 14th century Central Asia and radiated repeatedly from Eurasian wildlife reservoirs in the following centuries, only to disappear in the 18th-19th centuries. We will develop and analyse new dendrochronological and (paleo-)soil data, textual documentary evidence, and epidemiological models. To understand how plague reached and spread in human populations, paleo-environmental and historical data together with relevant experimental work will be combined with statistical and mathematical modelling. To appreciate why clinical signs and mortality rates varied in space and time, historical evidence will be examined together with new entomological data and ancient DNA (aDNA) of historical plague strains (from humans and anthropophilic rodents). Synergy-Plague will revolutionise our understanding of plague and contribute to our ongoing struggle with epidemic diseases, present and future.
Campo scientifico
Parole chiave
Programma(i)
- HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme
Argomento(i)
Meccanismo di finanziamento
HORIZON-ERC-SYG - HORIZON ERC Synergy GrantsIstituzione ospitante
0313 Oslo
Norvegia