What Happened at the Dancing Plague of 1518?
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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.
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.
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.
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.
“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).
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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.