Introductions of Plague (IMAGE) Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Caption These are introductions of plague involving different land and maritime trade routes. The two arrows starting from the region highlighted in dark color referring to the Land of Darkness, reflect the involvement of the fur trade route in the dissemination of Yersinia pestis into Europe. The blue arrow indicates the arrival of plague into Marseille in 1720 through infected ships from Sidon (Lebanon). Red circles: Black Death samples (1346-1353); Pink circles: samples from the so-called pestis secunda (1357-1366); Light Blue circle: sample from Ellwangen (1485-1627+); Blue circle: sample from Marseille (1720-1722). The black lines represent the Silk Road. Blue lines represent the maritime routes. The dashed lines represent the fur trade routes. The geographical regions highlighted in yellow correspond to natural foci of plague. Credit Image courtesy of Amine Namouchi. Usage Restrictions None License Licensed content Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.