This article, dating to 7th September, popped up today on Google Alerts, but actually dates back to 2004, when it was quite widely reported. The article quotes the source of the piece as a National Geographic article dated to March 2004. Quite why it should have raised its head again I don't know, but I thought it might be of interest to newer readers, so I have included it:
The earliest possible description of the plague that is known of is found in the Hebrew Bible in Samuel. The event has been dated to around the second half of the 11th century B.C. The Hebrew description of tumors in the Bible is interpreted as the 'swelling in the secret parts.' The Philistine city was said to have been stricken with mice which brought death to large segments of the population.New evidence has been uncovered that leads some experts to believe that the plague's origins may come from Egypt. Eva Panagiotakopulu, who is an archaeologist and fossil-insect expert at the University of Sheffield, England, is the woman responsible for science's latest discovery. Eva has found archaeological evidence to back up the plague's possible origins in Egypt, and that evidence has recently just been published in the Journal of Biogeography.
The Geotimes Magazine website also offered a good summary of the research at Amarna, on this page dated to May 2004.
The original paper was published in the Journal of Biogeography (subscription/payment only):
Eva Panagiotakopulu (2004)
Pharaonic Egypt and the origins of plague
Journal of Biogeography 31 (2), 269–275.
doi:10.1046/j.0305-0270.2003.01009.x
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