Disproving the New World Origin of Syphilis.

The Origin of Syphilis

The bacterium Treponema pallidum is the source of the sexually transmitted infection known as Syphilis. It was commonly held that this bacterium originated in the New World and was brought back to Europe after 1492.

Evidence presented by academics who support the Columbian theory state that Martín Alonso Pinzón who captained the Pinta in Columbus’ first voyage died of syphilis in 1493 soon after returning home in Spain. Moreover, before the Naples syphilis outbreak of 1495, they claim that no one had ever heard of the disease in Europe.

However, in 1994 a number of skeletons including one called specimen n.1216 were found in Hull during an archaeological dig proved that syphilis was in Europe prior to Columbus’ voyage to the New World.

Moreover, skeletons in pre-Columbus Pompeii and Metaponto in Italy have also been found with the tell tale distinctive dental markings caused by congenital syphilis, which is passed from mother to child.

In addition to this, Douglas W. Owsley, a physical anthropologist at the Smithsonian Institution, has suggested that many medieval European cases of leprosy, colloquially called lepra, were actually cases of syphilis. John Lobdell and Douglas Owsley wrote that a European writer who recorded an outbreak of lepra in 1303 was “clearly describing syphilis.”^[1] 

In 2015, researchers discovered 14th-century skeletons in Austria that show signs of congenital syphilis. Therefore, the historical and physical evidence clearly disproves the shameful lie that Syphilis was brought back from the New World.

T. England’s Thesis Columbus was vilified by syphilis (2019) provides further reading about the evidence that disproves the New World origin of Treponema pallidum. His Thesis is available though the University of Adelaide via the following link.

1. Lobdell J, Owsley D (August 1974) “The origin of syphilis”. Journal of Sex Research. 10 (1):76-79. doi:10.1080/00224497409550828. (via JSTOR)