The First Quarantine: Lessons from Past Epidemics

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In a world changed by COVID-19, it is valuable to look at past reactions to epidemics and learn from them. Modern economies and political systems are designed with the assumption that such events cannot happen. The real risks in food and staples production and distribution in America and Europe or the inability to protect the work force for just a few months expose structural problems. And yet microbes and human beings have been locked in coevolution since our species appeared, and more so in the last two centuries after a rapid increase in human population. Studies for a new project in the island of Lazzaretto Vecchio, Venice, Italy, the first quarantine in the world, as well as data from major epidemics in historical periods will inform a brief overview of what works and what does not with epidemics. Masks, lockdowns, economic impact, morbidity and death, quacks and physicians in competition, little is new but the people experiencing the epidemic. I will present some ideas for future research in the project, and how the current pandemic is reshaping the project and its priorities.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• SAA 2021: General Sessions

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 33158