or in general if the Nazca culture had any reason to believe that rats were anything other than just Little Guys
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or in general if the Nazca culture had any reason to believe that rats were anything other than just Little Guys
Bubonic plague specifically was completely absent from the Americas prior to Columbus. There's some evidence (antibodies in pre-Columbian mummy feces) that Salmonella, which is also carried by rats, may have been present. But it's well-documented that Salmonella was one of the primary causes of the Cocolizti epidemics in the 1600s, so its unlikely that it was common prior to contact.
til! (depressing that the evidence for this is that we have records of indigenous people being caught off-guard by post-contact outbreaks of the plague.)
and yeah, I assume there were some precolumbian rodentborne diseases around -- microorganisms are creative like that.
I know there was a really weird conspiracy theory a couple of years back that the Phoenicians/Carthaginians had contact with South America, but that would predate any of our known plague outbreaks.