Neolithic population collapse may have been caused by plague, researchers say
DNA studies suggest disease was central to devastating collapse of northern European population 5,000 years ago
February 2024
A case of bubonic plague was reported in Oregon. Here’s what to know
US cases of plague are exceedingly rare, and modern therapies are effective when patients are treated in time
December 2023
Badenoch condemns London plague study after MP calls it ‘woke archaeology’
Equalities minister has written to Museum of London over a study that examined plague victims’ ethnicities
November 2023
Women with Black African ancestry ‘at greater risk when plague hit London’
Experts studying remains of victims buried in 14th century say bubonic plague was not an indiscriminate killer
June 2023
Ancient Britons built Stonehenge – then vanished. Is science closing in on their killers?
Jonathan Kennedy
New clues from an ancient plague are pushing us to rethink where Britons were ‘really’ from, says academic and author Jonathan Kennedy
March 2023
Country diary
Country diary: A remote church in a long-lost borough
Llanfihangel Cefnllys, Powys: The bracken hillsides are aflame with light as I follow the lane to the spire
June 2022
Mystery of Black Death’s origins solved, say researchers
International team link spike in deaths at cemeteries in Kyrgyzstan in 1300s to start of plague pandemic
March 2021
Australian arts in focus
From plague puns to isolation creation: what Shakespeare teaches us about pandemic life
After 60 years with the Bard, John Bell reflects on how the playwright turned home quarantine into a source of productivity
December 2020
A happy ending for King Lear? Trauma of plague caused Shakespeare to change play’s finale
The Bard, like us, lived through a period of trauma. One expert now believes it coloured his later plays
November 2020
Weatherwatch
Great plague of 1660s bears sad similarities to Covid pandemic
Inner-city poor suffered most while rich decamped to countryside – but numbers started falling as winter cold killed off rats
July 2020
Lockdown culture
Where are the bones of Hans Holbein? I spent lockdown solving art's grisliest mystery
Teenage boy dies of bubonic plague in Mongolia after eating marmot
June 2020
Hisham Matar on how the Black Death changed art forever
After the plague, death became a silent companion for Renaissance artists. Hisham Matar recalls a month in Siena, exploring love, loss, mortality and art
April 2020
Books blog
A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe is our reading group book for May
This 1722 ‘potrait of the face of London now indeed strangely altered’ offers a fascinating perspective on our current crisis
March 2020
Lockdown culture
Shakespeare in lockdown: did he write King Lear in plague quarantine?
Plague visionaries: how Rembrandt, Titian and Caravaggio tackled pestilence
February 2020
Mass grave shows how Black Death devastated the countryside
Grave in Lincolnshire dates to medieval pandemic of 1348 and reveals rural plague catastrophe
November 2019
China records third case of deadly bubonic plague
Confirmed case in autonomous region of Inner Mongolia comes after two cases in Beijing
May 2019
Mongolian couple die of bubonic plague after eating marmot
Six-day quarantine declared in region, preventing tourists from leaving
November 2018
You think 2018 is the worst year ever? Try the real dark age: 536
Kate Williams
Nothing compares to the year the sun stopped shining, says Kate Williams
