"Medieval Skeleton Sheds New Light on Syphilis History"
A team of paleopathologists in Marseille has used ancient-DNA analysis to find evidence of Treponema bacteria, associated with syphilis, in a skeleton buried in Provence in the 7th or 8th century. This challenges the belief that syphilis arrived in Europe in the 15th century with Christopher Columbus and his sailors. While the historical record describes a catastrophic epidemic coinciding with Columbus's return, this new evidence suggests that syphilis or a related disease was infecting Europeans centuries earlier. However, further research is needed to fully understand the origins of syphilis and its global spread.