Year of Award

2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Type

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Degree Name

Anthropology

Department or School/College

Department of Anthropology

Committee Chair

Meradeth Snow

Commitee Members

Anna Prentiss, Xenia Kyriakou, David Xing, Maciej Gembicki

Keywords

bioinformatics, Disease, DNA, osteology, Poland, tuberculosis

Abstract

The individuals buried in the cemetery of Czysty Square and the population of the vanished village of Gać lived and died during the early modern period in what is now modern-day Poland. Epidemics broke out repeatedly during this time, and the skeletal remains of several individuals buried in Czysty Square’s cemetery display pathological changes suggestive of infectious disease. These non-specific morphological changes created a need for DNA testing to search for pathogens associated with these lesions. In contrast, Gać’s population declined over time until the village’s abandonment. This has led to a hypothesis of an epidemic having contributed to the decline. This dissertation presents the results of aDNA testing of individuals excavated from these two cemeteries. The aDNA testing for pathogens focused on bacteria that caused epidemics during this time period and, for Czysty Square, bacteria that cause meningitis: Y. pestis, M. tuberculosis, N. meningitidis, H. influenzae, S. pneumoniae, and L. monocytogenes. The high sequence counts of genus Mycobacterium amongst the samples from Czysty Square prompted deeper investigation into complexes and species to which these sequences belong.

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© Copyright 2026 Danielle Marie Airola