Trends-US
How volcanoes upend the story of what sparked the Black Death

For centuries, the prevailing explanation of how the Black Death entered medieval Europe was a simple narrative of biological warfare. During a siege of Caffa, a Genoa-controlled port city on the Crimean Peninsula, a Mongol army catapulted plague-infested bodies over the city walls, according to a historical account. It was a simple narrative, with a clear villain.



