The reason we can’t find many skeletons from the smallpox outbreaks in the Americas is because so many people died so fast that there was no one left to bury them.
March 25, 2026
Original Paper
Exploring Archaeological Evidence for Historic Smallpox Epidemics in the Americas
SSRN · 6464361
The Takeaway
We expect massive death events to leave massive burial sites. This study suggests that because smallpox killed so much of the population so quickly, there were no survivors left to perform traditional rituals, effectively erasing the evidence from the archaeological record.
From the abstract
Colonialism in the Americas was a complex biocultural phenomenon. Native populations were subjected to overt violence, forced labor, and changes to their economic, social, and religious lifeways, as well as being devastated by introduced diseases such as smallpox. While it is quite clear from historical sources that smallpox and other infectious diseases were responsible for millions of deaths in the Americas, there is limited archaeological evidence to corroborate this historical narrative. Her