Scientists Find 5,500-Year-Old Plague Outbreak in Siberia, Challenging Farming-Origin Theory
Updated
Updated · NBC News · Jun 17
Scientists Find 5,500-Year-Old Plague Outbreak in Siberia, Challenging Farming-Origin Theory
3 articles · Updated · NBC News · Jun 17
Summary
Nature study data from Siberian graves show the oldest known plague outbreak, with Yersinia pestis DNA detected in 18 of 46 skeletons from four Lake Baikal-area cemeteries dating back about 5,500 years.
About 40% of tested remains carried plague DNA, including three girls ages 4 to 9 buried together, leading researchers to conclude two outbreaks likely spread within family groups and hit children especially hard.
The findings suggest plague was already devastating hunter-gatherer communities before the rise of dense farming societies, undermining the long-held view that agriculture was the main trigger for its emergence.
Researchers say this early strain likely spread as pneumonic plague through coughing rather than by flea-borne bubonic transmission, a later evolutionary development thought to have appeared around 3,800 years ago.