AI Insight
DNA analysis from ancient mummies discovered in Chile has provided the strongest scientific evidence to date that smallpox was introduced to the Americas through European colonization rather than being present before contact. The genetic material recovered from these mummified remains confirms the disease arrived with European colonizers. This finding resolves a long-standing question about the origins and timing of smallpox in the New World.
Why it matters
This research definitively establishes the role of European colonization in bringing devastating infectious diseases to indigenous American populations, confirming historical accounts with genetic evidence. Understanding disease transmission patterns during historical contact events has implications for studying how pathogens spread during human migration and colonization events.
Understand the Science
Ancient mummy DNA recovered in Chile has yielded the firmest evidence yet that European colonization brought smallpox to the Americas.
Source: Ancient mummy DNA provides scientific evidence that colonization brought smallpox to the Americas