Kyle Harper

In the 6th century, probably the plague goes south through India and maybe like the ports in Gujarat or along the west coast that are still pretty connected with the Roman world, with East Africa, with Arabia, with the Red Sea.

that the plague travels on ship across the Indian Ocean because it shows up – the plague of Justinian shows up in the Red Sea.

And so that is a clue that it probably is imported on this seaborne commerce.

But how it got from Central Asia to Gujarat is a hard question.

There's two things.

First of all, you have to look.

Yeah.

So there is at present,

not nearly the same amount of ancient DNA laboratory work that's happening on remains from ancient India.

So if you're not looking, you're definitely not going to find it.

And people aren't looking.

Secondly, it takes a lot of luck for it to preserve.

So the DNA molecule starts degrading.

The second you die, it just starts falling apart.

And

Even in the best of cases where we're getting it from, usually you're getting it from, if it's pathogen, usually getting it from the dental cavity.

It's human DNA, you're getting it from the inside of the skull.

But it takes a lot of luck for it to preserve because the soil conditions will affect the degradation.

The temperature will affect the degradation.

And just in a crude sense, heat is bad.