Ancient mummy DNA recovered in Chile has produced what researchers describe as the strongest scientific evidence so far that European colonization brought smallpox to the Americas. The finding adds genetic support to a long-held historical view about how the disease reached the region.
Smallpox was already a major killer in parts of Asia and Europe before it spread across the Atlantic. In the Americas, the disease went on to kill millions of people and severely damage Indigenous communities, making its arrival one of the most consequential public health disasters of the colonial era.
The new research centers on DNA taken from ancient mummified remains in Chile. By identifying evidence tied to smallpox in those remains, scientists say they can more firmly connect the disease’s presence in the Americas to the period of European expansion rather than to an earlier, unproven origin.
The study highlights how ancient DNA is reshaping the history of infectious disease. Beyond confirming when and how smallpox likely arrived, the work also helps explain the scale of the devastation that followed colonization across the Americas.
