Researchers have recovered and analyzed the first ancient smallpox virus genomes ever identified in the Americas, providing the strongest direct evidence to date that the disease was introduced through European colonization. Smallpox, caused by variola virus, played a major role in the catastrophic population decline experienced by Indigenous peoples after European arrival.

Centuries-old DNA that was found in these mummies belongs to an extinct viral lineage of smallpox that was brought across the Atlantic during European colonization of the Americas

New research says ancient mummy DNA provides the firmest evidence yet that European colonization brought smallpox to the Americas

Smallpox is an age-old scourge with a terrible history.