Researchers report the oldest known evidence of plague killing humans in prehistoric Siberia. Multiple outlets describe a study using ancient DNA extracted from burials of late Stone Age hunter-gatherers in southeastern Siberia (including sites near Lake Baikal). The analyses indicate that Yersinia pestis, the bacterium that causes plague, was already causing lethal outbreaks about 5,500 years ago—roughly 2 centuries earlier than previously estimated based on earlier evidence.
The studies focus on individuals buried at hunter-gatherer cemeteries and find evidence that plague strains were present in a large share of sampled people, with findings consistent across outlets that the outbreaks affected both children and teenagers as well as adults. Several sources also describe signs of rapid spread within families, suggesting that outbreaks could move through small, mobile communities rather than requiring the crowded living conditions often associated with later historical epidemics.
Overall, the findings push back the timeline for when Yersinia pestis began killing people and indicate the disease could be highly virulent long before the rise of agriculture, cities, and the later, better-known outbreaks in Europe.
