Mass Plague Graves Found on Venice "Quarantine" Island
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An aerial view shows Lazzaretto
Vecchio, a island south of
Italy's Venetian Island, in a photograph recently released to
National Geographic News. (See
map of Italy).
Ancient mass graves containing
skeletons of more than 1,500 bubonic plague victims have been found
on the small island. Some of the graves date back to the end of the
15th century.
Plague outbreaks decimated Venice,
as well as much of Europe, throughout the 15th and 16th centuries.
The plague was spread by fleas, which often fed on infected rats,
and then bit people.
The island may represent the
world's first "lazaret"—a quarantine colony for people with
infectious diseases. |
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| A satellite image shows the island
of Lazzaretto Vecchio (yellow square), south of the Italy's Venetian
Lagoon.
More than 1,500 victims of the
bubonic plague have been found the island, what may be the world's
first lazaret, a disease quarantine colony.
The lazaret concept began in 1845
when a devastating plague hit Venice. Venice's government built a
public hospital on Lazzaretto Vecchio to isolate the infection and
curb the disease's spread.
At the time the island was named
Santa Maria di Nazareth, but people also called it Nazarethum or
Lazaretum. The second name prevailed and eventually gave rise to the
modern word "lazaret". |
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| Skeletons of ancient plague
victims lie in a grave on the island of Lazzaretto Vecchio, south of
the Venetian Lagoon in Italy.
The skeletons were first discovered
three years ago when workers digging the foundation for Venice
Town's Museum on the eastern side of the island came across hundreds
of well-preserved human skeletons.
The island, located a couple of
kilometers from Venice's famed Piazza San Marco, might be the
world's first lazaret, or quarantine colony.
"When plague struck the town
throughout the 15th and 16th centuries, everybody sick or showing
any suspect symptom were restricted on the island, until they
recovered or died," Luisa Gambaro, an anthropologist of the
University of Padua told National Geographic News. |
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| Archaeologists work at a mass
grave containing skeletons of victims of the bubonic plague on the
island of Lazzaretto Vecchio, south of Italy's Venice Lagoon.
"In the last three years we
collected more than 1,500 corpses and 150 boxes of artifacts,"
Vincenzo Gobbo, an archaeologist at the University Ca' Foscari of
Venice, told National Geographic News. "We estimate there are still
thousands of skeletons buried beneath every meadow in Lazzaretto
Vecchio."
Researchers from across Italy will study the remains to learn
more about society and everyday life in medieval and Renaissance
Venice. |
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Archaeologists work at a mass grave containing skeletons of victims
of the bubonic plague on the island of Lazzaretto Vecchio, south of
Italy's Venice Lagoon.
"In the last three years we
collected more than 1,500 corpses and 150 boxes of artifacts,"
Vincenzo Gobbo, an archaeologist at the University Ca' Foscari of
Venice, told National Geographic News. "We estimate there are still
thousands of skeletons buried beneath every meadow in Lazzaretto
Vecchio."
Researchers from across Italy will
study the remains to learn more about society and everyday life in
medieval and Renaissance Venice. |
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|
Skeletons of bubonic plague victims lie in a mass grave on the
island of Lazzaretto Vecchio, south of Italy's Venetian Lagoon.
When plague struck Venice in the
15th and 16th centuries, everybody sick or showing any suspect
symptoms were restricted on the island until they recovered or died.
"Nobles or lower class didn't make
any difference," said Luisa Gambaro, an anthropologist of the
University of Padua. "All the sick were forced to stay on Lazzaretto
Vecchio, and if they died, they were buried together." |
Source:
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This page compliments of
Marisa Ciceran
Created:
Thursday, August 30, 2007: Last Updated:
Friday, August 31, 2007
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