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Ancient DNA uncovers deadly plague outbreak among Siberian hunter-gatherers 5,500 years ago
- June 17, 2026 at 3:00 PM
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Plague is commonly associated with rats, crowded medieval cities, and the epidemics that swept across Europe during and after the Middle Ages. But a new study published in Nature shows that the disease was already lethal 5,500 years ago, when it killed humans in small, mobile hunter-gatherer communities—long before the rise of agriculture and cities created the conditions usually associated with plague epidemics.
Originally published at Phys.org