Ancient Plague

Outbreaks of plague are among the most fatal events in world history. For years, evidence pointed to the Justinian plague as the first which happened in 541 CE. But now, archaeological findings show plague circulated in human communities long before then, among Siberia’s hunter-gatherers more than 5,000 years ago. 

This undermines the prevailing theory that the plague emerged as humans transitioned to farming with stored food that attracted infected rodents and fleas. It also challenges the idea that hunter-gatherers weren’t vulnerable to plague because they were migratory.   

Among dozens of cemeteries in the Lake Baikal region of southeast Siberia, Archaeologists found a disproportionate number of children all dying around the same time with no signs of violence. Tests now show about 40 percent of the nearly 50 young skeletons had Yersinia pestis DNA indicating they died of the plague. Remains from another cemetery 20 miles away also had plague DNA with death around the same time. Both cemeteries are located along the Angara River that drains from Lake Baikal.   

The Y. pestis that circulated then had a gene that encoded a toxin which likely triggered an extreme immune response in children that contributed to their deaths. These people would have eaten local game such as marmots, a small mammal,--the likely source of Y. pestis. Findings like this shatter long-held theories about early human societies to help us understand our past.