A researcher in the Global Irish Studies Initiative at Georgetown University (GIS) explored the early medieval history of animal disease in Ireland at a talk March 27.
Rachel Singer, a Ph.D. candidate in the department of history who studies the environmental and gender history of medieval northern Europe, led the talk with GIS, an interdisciplinary academic program concentrated on the study of Irish history. During her presentation, Singer analyzed old texts written on parchment made from the skins of hundreds of cattle, providing a firsthand look into Irish historical records.
Singer said that although other records show disease affecting various animals, cattle held particular significance in medieval Ireland.
“Cattle were culturally and economically more important in Ireland than in just about anywhere else in the Middle Ages,” Singer said at the event.
Cattle were the cornerstone of the economy in medieval Europe, as cows were used for plowing and physical labor. According to Singer, people experienced economic hardship in Europe largely because of epizootic events, disease events in non-human animals analogous to human epidemics, as these diseases killed cattle from the eighth to tenth centuries.
Singer said our understanding of the impact of biological and environmental factors hinged on the survival of these historical records.
“Because nearly all of our textual evidence is preserved on parchment, animal disease could’ve directly affected how much historical material has survived to the present,” Singer said.
The Annals, a specific set of texts Irish monks wrote on cattle skin, provide a comprehensive account of major events in Irish history. Singer said these texts constitute one of the most significant historical sources for medieval Ireland.
Singer said the monks selectively chose which events to include in the Annals, with some events overruling others, potentially explaining the presence of a gap in epizootic records between the eighth and tenth centuries.
“Monks recorded a mix of things each year that they thought were important,” Singer said. “There are no causes, there are no effects.”
Singer said studying animal disease can provide insight into daily lives of the Irish in medieval times.
“Through these lenses, we are able to flesh out our understanding of how these acts likely unfolded,” Singer said.
Because parchment was so rare, Singer said it highlighted how important it was to the Irish that they recorded these epizootics so frequently.
“Another reason to care is because the people of that time clearly did,” Singer said. “That’s why they wrote so much about it. We owe it to our historical subjects.”
Julia Perry (CAS ’28) said the talk connected to her pre-veterinary science studies.
“I didn’t know that there was such a long history of animal epidemics, because we see them now with bird flu, but I didn’t know about anything previously,” Perry told The Hoya.
Jordan Wilson, a postdoctoral fellow in the Earth Commons, a center dedicated to exploring global environmental challenges, said Singer’s research emphasizes the need for more attention to historical epidemiology.
“We tend to forget that humans lived in a natural world with animals and the diseases that they carried,” Wilson told The Hoya. “It was a phenomenal example of how important historical research is for understanding who we are and what we are doing today.”
Singer said by examining the impact of these diseases, researchers can recognize the historical relationship between humans and animals.
“The people loved their animals and expected them to love them back,” Singer said. “They cared about them as individuals and formed emotional bonds with them just as we do with our pets today.”
Singer said it was important to listen to our predecessors and carefully look at historical artifacts. “If people in the past tell you over and over again that something is important, it can benefit us as people looking at the past to listen to them,” Singer said. “We might just learn a lot about their culture and society.”
