Smallpox with Ana Duggan and Tim Newfield
Episode 116 - September 18, 2023
Ana Duggan (McMaster) and Tim Newfield (Georgetown) join the Infectious Historians to discuss smallpox. The conversation begins as always with a survey of what smallpox actually is as well as its broad history. After Ana and Tim share the reasons they chose to research smallpox, they move on to speak about recent research about historical smallpox, particularly through the study of the virus’ ancient DNA samples. Ana and Tim also discuss the differences which make the study of smallpox more difficult compared to other pathogens, and reflect upon where the field might be heading, particularly in the context of the Antonine Plague.
Further Reading
- A. Duggan et al., "17th Century Variola Virus Reveals the Recent History of Smallpox" Current Biology 26 (2016), pp. 3407-3412.
- B. Mühlemann et al., "Diverse Variola Virus (Smallpox) Strains Were Widespread in Northern Europe in the Viking Age" Science 369 (2020), eaaw8977.
- G. Ferrari et al., "Variola Virus Genome Sequenced from an Eighteenth-Century Museum Specimen Supports the Recent Origin of Smallpox" Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 375 (2020), 20190572.
- A. Carmichael and A. Silverstein, "Smallpox in Europe before the Seventeenth Century: Virulent Killer or Benign Disease?" Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 42 (1987), pp. 147-168.
- T. Newfield, A. Duggan, H. Poinar, "Smallpox's Antiquity in Doubt" Journal of Roman Archaeology 35 (2022), pp. 897-193.
- T. Newfield, S. Marciniak, B. Cameron-Steinke, " 'Verbalist Ingenuity' and the Evidential Basis for Virgin-Soil Smallpox Epidemics in the Sixth Century" in R. Oram ed., 'With Our Backs to the Ocean:' Essays in Memory of Alasdair Ross (Brepols, 2023), pp. 25-82.
Our Guests
Ana Duggan
Adjunct Assistant Professor – Department of Anthropology – McMaster University.
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Tim Newfield
Assistant Professor – Departments of History and Biology – Georgetown University.
