Plague corpses catapulted at the siege of Caffa
Cadáveres de peste lanzados con trabuquetes (asedio de Caffa)
- Date
- 1346 · confidence medium
- Place
- Feodosia (Caffa), Crimea, Ukraine
- Credited to
- Golden Horde army (Jani Beg)
- Field
- Conflict
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What was discovered
According to the notary Gabriele de' Mussi, Tatar besiegers hurled the corpses of plague victims into Caffa, a Genoese colony, with siege engines. It is often cited as the first documented use of disease as a weapon of war.
The account comes from an indirect witness written c. 1348 in Italy, and historians doubt its truth and that it caused the spread of plague (which was already travelling along trade routes). It is included for its historiographical importance, as a disputed episode.
What it led to
- debate on biological warfare in the modern age
- the spread of the Black Death from the Black Sea to Italy
- quarantine protocols in Italian ports