Climate and Environmental History Seminar & Medieval Seminar
Professor Torbjörn Ahlström, Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Lund University, presents at the seminar: "How many plague pandemics? – Bioarchaeological perspectives from 4000 BCE to 1710 CE".
Painting of Marseille during the outbreak of a pandemic in 1720 by Michel Serre (1658–1733), Wikimedia Commons/public domain.
Torbjörn Ahlström, Professor of Historical Osteology at Lund University, is a human osteologist who has mainly researched archaeological skeletal materials from a demographic perspective and for studying plague and other diseases.
The seminar is a collaboration between The Climate and Environmental History Seminar and The Medieval Seminar.
Torbjörn Ahlström. Foto: privat.
Abstract
There are at least three plague pandemics that have ravaged human societies. The First Pandemic (541–750 CE), the initial outbreak is referred to as the Justinianic Plague, the Second Pandemic (1347–1830 CE), with the Black Death as the initial outbreak, as well as the Third Pandemic (1855–?).
It was in connection with the last pandemic that Alexandre Yersin identified Yersinia pestis as the microbe causing the disease. With the advent of a DNA studies, new line research was opened. Yersinia pestis has been identified in much older skeletal materials, such as from Neolithic passage tombs in Västergötland. Is this a plague pandemic?
In this presentation I will address the history of plague pandemics from a bioarchaeological perspective and the association with climate change.
About the seminar
Conveners: Fredrik Charpentier Ljungqvist, Martin Skoglund, and Iva Lučić.
Zoom link: https://stockholmuniversity.zoom.us/j/65867176396
For information about the seminar, e-mail: fredrik.c.l@historia.su.se
Last updated: 2026-02-10
Source: Department of History