The Smithsonian article is based on the paper The Four Black Deaths [1] by Monica H. Green: > The Mongols, whose empire emerged in 1206, unwittingly moved plag

The Smithsonian article is based on the paper The Four Black Deaths [1] by Monica H. Green: > The Mongols, whose empire emerged in 1206, unwittingly moved plague through Central Eurasia in the thirteenth, not the fourteenth, century. Grain shipments that the Mongols brought with them to several sieges, including the siege of Baghdad, were the most likely mechanism of transmission. The fourteenth century plague outbreaks represent local spillover events out of the new plague reservoirs seeded by the military campaigns of the thirteenth century. [1] https://academic.oup.com/ahr/article-abstract/125/5/1601/6040962 https://academic.oup.com/ahr/article-abstract/125/5/1601/604...