What Happened at the Dancing Plague of 1518?

By Dig Labs Contributors

Source: Dig Labs Project

We analyze the historical records and environmental conditions of the period to find the specific trigger for this mass event.

Note to reader:
We hope you find this article useful—it’s an ongoing Observatory research project that will be updated.
If you have expertise or insight on the topic that you think could be useful, please send us a note.

Join Our Collaborative Research

Note to reader:
We hope you find this article useful—it’s an ongoing Observatory research project that will be updated.
If you have expertise or insight on the topic that you think could be useful, please send us a note.

Join Our Collaborative Research

“What Happened at the Dancing Plague of 1518?” by Dig Labs Contributors is licensed by the Observatory under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). For permissions requests beyond the scope of this license, please see Observatory.wiki’s Reuse and Reprint Rights guidance.Last edited: June 29, 2026

Send us a note about this articleDonate to the Observatory

Introduction

In the summer of 1518, hundreds of people in Strasbourg were gripped by a "dancing plague" that caused them to dance for days until they collapsed or died. This historical event has been attributed to various triggers, including ergot poisoning or mass hysteria brought on by social and environmental stress. Understanding this anomaly offers a unique window into the social psychology of 16th-century Europe.

We analyze the historical records and environmental conditions of the period to find the specific trigger for this mass event.