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Malaria and the Fall of Rome

            Suspicions about the circumstances in which the ancient city of Rome fell to barbarians in the 4th -5th century AD have been the center of many archaeologists work for decades. How could an empire so powerful in economy and armed forces just be defeated? Some say that lead poisoning was weakening and killing civilians, some say it was a shortage of food but now a new possibility has be brought to light. An illness that still affects people on earth today. Malaria.
             In the early 1990's the excavation of an ancient Roman villa began. The excavators never expected to find anything more than a typical small town home but not only did they find a much larger structure, they also found 47 children's bodies. These were the bodies that began the revelation of the epidemic. .
             The first 7 bodies were found in the cellar of the villa. Pots dating back to around 450 AD had been broken and reassembled around the dead children's bodies. Gradually the rest of the bodies were discovered with the oldest being only about 3 years old. The bodies had been buried at different levels but they all belonged to the same layer. The bodies had also been disposed of with very little ceremony. David Xoran then began to suspect there was more to the site than just an ancient burial site.
             At the site animal bones were also present. Many bones belonging to dogs, mainly puppies that were usually severed or beheaded were found amongst the children's bones. Frog bones were also found. These were thought to be used in a Pagan ritual. The sacrificing of the puppies was used to chase away evil and the frogs were used as a cure for fever. Pagan rituals were illegal in that time and people who were caught practicing them could be killed, so by taking that risk it showed that the town was very afraid of what these children were dying from. Studies of the bones revealed heavily pitted eyes and when a cross section of the bones was taken it showed honeycombed bones.


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