Do you ever wonder what people hundreds of years from now will think of us? A key to the answer may be in our mouths right now.
In fact, researchers today are learning more about how the Black Death impacted humans centuries ago from DNA evidence of bubonic plague hiding in ancient teeth found in Kyrgyzstan. With this evidence, they hope to pinpoint where and when the plague began.
“Our teeth... are amazing things,” said Dr. Sharon DeWitte, an anthropology professor at the University of South Carolina and expert on the Black Death who joined us for the latest episode of “Something Offbeat”. Each week, the podcast explores an unusual news story.
Dr. Alicia Ventreseca Miller, an archeology professor at the University of Michigan, joined the show this week to explain how archeologists learn about people from the past. She gave a preview about what people may think of us in the future.
“I think it's really important for us to understand what’s happened in the past so that we can sort of understand our current existence, right?” she said. “Like we can understand the health and the diet and the movement of human populations through time.”
Grab a toothbrush, also maybe some floss, and listen in. If you have suggestions for stories we should cover, you can send them in to somethingoffbeat@audacy.com.
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