THE HALFAX HEIMDALL AUGUR

Incredible new paper documenting extremely lethal plague outbreaks in Siberia, around Lake Baikal, as early as 5500 years ago. The likely source? Marmots, which still act as a reservoir of plague bacteria today. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A Deadly Outbreak of Plague, Nearly 5,000 Years Before the Black Death The oldest known cases, discovered among hunter-gatherers in Siberian graves, contradict the theory that the disease once was mild.

New study published today in @nature.com reconstructing the earliest known #plague #genomes shows that early forms of plague caused deadly outbreaks amongst Hunter Gatherers 5500 years ago around Lake Baikal @rschulting.bsky.social #RuairidhMacleod www.reuters.com/business/hea...

First 'epidemic'? Spoke to Oxford Uni's Ruairhidh Macleod about this 5,500-year-old plague outbreak that devastated families in Neolithic Siberia. Remarkable because these were mobile hunter-gatherers not settled farming communities - plus deadly virulence genes in early strains. rdcu.be/fo1RN

#Archaeology #AncientDNA provides evidence of earliest known #plague outbreak https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/jun/17/ancient-dna-evidence-earliest-known-plague-outbreak #science #history #medicine #infectiousDisease #epidemic

A Deadly Outbreak of Plague, Nearly 5,000 Years Before the Black Death. The oldest known cases, discovered among hunter-gatherers in Siberian graves, contradict the theory that the disease once was mild. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/17/s...

Black Death: Gene mutation in a bacterium helped plague conquer the ... Co-lead study author Ravneet Sidhu examines a human tooth at McMaster University’s Ancient DNA Centre in Hamilton, Ontario. The team collected samples of Yersinia pestis from human remains. McMaster University Facebook Tweet Email Link Threads Link Copied! Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter . Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more. One of the bleakest periods in medieval Europe was the plague pandemic known as the Black Death, which killed at least 25 million people in just five years. But the disease didn’t stop there. The plague adapted to keep its hosts alive longer, so it could spread farther and keep infecting people for centuries, and researchers now say they’ve discovered how. The disease is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, which has been circulating among human populations for at least 5,000 years . The pathogen has fueled three major plague pandemics since the first century AD, and though its deadliest years appear to be behind us, plague hasn’t disappeared. Cases still occur a few times a year in Asia, South America and the …

Ancient DNA reveals a plague outbreak in Siberia 5,500 years ago The findings in hunter-gatherers challenge the theory that plague coincided with the rise of agriculture. Read more: ow.ly/uuY750ZcUlj 📷: Vladimiri Bazaliiskii/Baikal Archaeology Project; Satellite image: Jacques Descloitres, NASA

Our ancient enemy: scientists discover oldest-known plague outbreak Scientists have found the oldest known evidence of the plague, which sparked deadly outbreaks dating back about 5,500 years ago – some 200 years earlier than previously thought. The disease has sickened humans for thousands of years and wiped out a significant chunk of Europe’s population in the 14th century during what’s known as the Black Death. Though rare, the plague is still around today and is treated with antibiotics. “To understand our own history, we believe that understanding the...

[1/3] 2026-06-18 16:24:00 - [Researchers find evidence of earliest known plague epidemic] Researchers have detected and reconstructed the Yersinia pestis genome from more than 5,000 years ago in remains buried in an ancient cemetery in southeastern Siberia. This may be one of the

Plague was killing hunter-gatherers 5,500 years ago: study PARIS (FRANCE) - The plague was causing deadly outbreaks among communities of hunter-gatherers in Siberia around 5,500 years ago, according to a study on Wednesday that sheds light on how humans could have first caught this scourge.

Scientists discover oldest known evidence of the plague with 5,500- year-old teeth Researchers looked for traces of plague-causing bacteria in remains from four cemeteries near Siberia’s Lake Baikal.

“DNA evidence shows that plague bacteria devastated a community of hunter-gatherers in Siberia more than 5000 years ago, challenging the idea that there were no major disease outbreaks before the advent of farming and large settlements” www.newscientist.com/article/2530...

Ancient DNA provides evidence of earliest known plague outbreak <p>Discovery in Siberia suggests bacterium from raw marmots devastated hunter-gatherer tribes about 5,500 years ago</p><p>The earliest evidence for an outbreak of plague has been uncovered at late stone age cemeteries in south-eastern Siberia where dozens of hunter-gatherers and their children were buried.</p><p>Ancient DNA collected from the remains suggests the disease tore through the sparse communities in devastating waves that began about 5,500 years ago, at least two centuries after the bacterium responsible, <em>Yersinia pestis</em>, first emerged.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/jun/17/ancient-dna-evidence-earliest-known-plague-outbreak">Continue reading...</a>

Hunter-gatherers in Siberia died of a plague outbreak 5,500 years ago We can't blame the Neolithic Transition for the plague anymore.

Lethal plague outbreaks in Lake Baikal hunter-gatherers ... - Nature Download PDF Subjects Archaeology Evolutionary biology Infectious diseases Abstract Plague is among the most devastating diseases in human history 1 . However, early strains of the plague-causing bacterium Yersinia pestis lacked virulence factors that are required for the bubonic form until around 3,800 years ago 2 , 3 . Consequently, the morbidity and mortality of early plague strains remain unclear. Here we describe early plague strains that are associated with two phases of outbreaks among mid-Holocene hunter-gatherers near Lake Baikal in southeast Siberia, beginning from about 5,500 years ago. These outbreaks occur across four hunter-gatherer cemeteries, with a 39% detection rate for plague infection. By reconstructing kinship pedigrees, we show that small familial groups were affected, consistent with human-to-human spread of disease, and that the first outbreak occurred within a single generation. The infections appear to have resulted in acute mortality, especially among children (aged 8 to 11 years). We further note functional differences, including in the ypm superantigen locus, which is also present in …

The first plague emerged in Siberia 5,500 years ago and primarily killed ... Miguel Ángel Criado Almería (Spain) - Jun 17, 2026 - 19:19 CEST Share on Whatsapp Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Desplegar Redes Sociales Prefer EL PAÍS on Google Compartir: Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Bluesky Linkedin Copy link Around Lake Baikal, in southern Siberia and north of present-day Mongolia, nomadic human groups who lived five millennia ago relied on fishing, hunting, and gathering wild fruits. They were still in the Paleolithic ; they had not been exposed to agriculture or the sedentarization that produced the first cities, which spread from the Middle East to Europe. Yet that Eden was thought to be free of two of the burdens that accompanied early human settlements: violence and disease. Perhaps the former; but now we know it was not the case of the latter. Researchers who study ancient pathogens have found in that region the oldest outbreak of plague, a scourge that has haunted humans ever since. As they detail in the prestigious journal Nature , the bacterium that caused it lacked the genes that later gave it enormous virulence, but it was nevertheless capable of killing, especially child…

Lethal plague outbreaks in Lake Baikal hunter-gatherers 5,500 years ago https://www.europesays.com/uk/1033835/ Barbieri, R. et al. Yersinia pestis: the natural history of plague. Clin. Microbiol. Rev. https://doi.org/10.1128/cmr.00044-19 (2020). Article  PubMed …

Read the #prehistoric #plague paper here www.nature.com/articles/s41... It shows that plague was lethal long before the rise of agriculture and cities created the conditions usually associated with plague epidemics.

Ruairidh Macleod (2026) demonstrated that lethal plague outbreaks occurred among Lake Baikal hunter-gatherers 5,500 years ago. Check out the video youtu.be/UOce1OU7yOQ #AncientDNA #Epidemiology #Siberia #Archaeology #Evolution #Science

Ancient DNA from hunter-gatherer graves near Siberia’s Lake Baikal reveals the oldest known plague outbreak, dating back 5,500 years. Researchers found Yersinia pestis in 18 individuals, showing plague devastated small communities long before cities, farming, or the Black Death.

Lethal plague outbreaks in Lake Baikal hunter-gatherers 5,500 years ago "We contend that the occurrence of outbreaks among mid-Holocene hunter-gatherer communities well outside the sphere of Late Neolithic Europe challenges the notion that higher population densities and lifestyle changes […]

"Ancient DNA provides evidence of earliest known plague outbreak" "Discovery in Siberia suggests bacterium from raw marmots devastated hunter-gatherer tribes about 5,500 years ago" They probably became infected after butchering or eating raw marmots. www.theguardian.com/science/2026...

#NatMicroPicks Been plaguing humans for long! 🦠 Ancient Yersinia pestis strains caused lethal outbreaks as early as 5,500 years ago indicating that plague epidemics occurred before the rise of dense societies. #MicroSky www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Plague outbreak struck hunter-gatherers 5,500 years ago By Tom Metcalfe 5 hours ago Share this: Share Share via email (Opens in new window) Email Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook Share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit Share on X (Opens in new window) X Print (Opens in new window) Print Listen to this article This is a human-written story voiced by AI. Got feedback? Take our survey . (See our AI policy here .) The oldest-known traces of plague, around 5,500 years old, have been discovered in hunter-gatherer burials in Siberia. Found at one of four ancient burial sites, the discovery predates the previous oldest signs of plague by several hundred years. It also indicates that hunter-gatherers were at risk from outbreaks of plague many centuries before the invention of farming and settled villages, researchers report June 17 in Nature . “We weren’t expecting this result at all,” says archaeologist Ruairidh Macleod of the University of Oxford. “There was an expectation that these big outbreaks don’t really happen among prehistoric hunter-gatherers [but only] with people living in high-density settlements.” Macleod and colleagues had come across unusually large…

Early plague strains associated with two phases of outbreaks among mid-Holocene hunter-gatherers near Lake Baikal in southeast Siberia, beginning from about 5,500 years ago. They occur across 4 hunter-gatherer cemeteries with a 39% detection rate for plague infection. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Ancient DNA uncovers deadly plague outbreak among Siberian hunter ... June 17, 2026 Ancient DNA uncovers deadly plague outbreak among Siberian hunter-gatherers 5,500 years ago by University of Copenhagen edited by Sadie Harley , reviewed by Robert Egan Editors' notes This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: fact-checked peer-reviewed publication trusted source proofread The GIST Add as preferred source Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain 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. An international group of researchers analyzed ancient DNA from human remains found at four hunter-gatherer cemeteries in the Lake Baikal region of East Siberia. Us…

Ancient DNA provides evidence of earliest known plague outbreak | Archaeology https://www.europesays.com/uk/1033135/ The earliest evidence for an outbreak of plague has been uncovered at late stone age cemeteries in south-eastern…

Earliest outbreak of the plague killed hunter-gatherer kids 5,500 years ago Scientists have solved a mystery that puzzled them for decades: Why were so many dead children buried by hunter-gatherers in Russia 5,500 years ago? It turns out they were k... #cbc #cbc-top-stories #Canada

Plague killed Siberian hunter-gatherers 5,500 years ago — before farming arrived https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/06/hunter-gatherers-in-siberia-died-of-a-plague-outbreak-5500-years-ago/#comments More in today's Infeather → https://infeather.com/archive/2026-06-20/

A Deadly Outbreak of Plague, Nearly 5,000 Years Before the Black Death The oldest known cases, discovered among hunter-gatherers in Siberian graves, contradict the theory that the disease once was mild.

🦠 Plague struck hunter-gatherer communities 5,500 years ago - much earlier than we thought. New genomic evidence reveals deadly outbreaks, even before cities and agriculture. www.news-medical.net/news/2026062... #Plague #HumanHistory @nature.com

“Plague DNA found in human remains from over 4,000 years ago is genetically quite different to the plague strains which caused the Black Death in Europe. Prehistoric plague strains lack a gene that allows the bacteria to effectively hijack fleas, turning them into bubonic #plague delivery […]

[1/3] 2026-06-18 16:24:00 - [Researchers find evidence of earliest known plague epidemic] Researchers have detected and reconstructed the Yersinia pestis genome from more than 5,000 years ago in remains buried in an ancient cemetery in southeastern Siberia. This may be one of the

Researchers found ancient DNA from the plague-causing bacteria in teeth from remains buried in four Siberian cemeteries. They tracked the family dynamics of how and when people got sick and dated the oldest outbreak to around 5,500 years ago, affecting a small community of hunter-gatherers.

#Disease #Plague #Prehistory #Palaeoarchaeology Ancient DNA provides evidence of earliest known plague outbreak www.theguardian.com/science/2026... The earliest evidence for an outbreak of plague has been uncovered at late stone age cemeteries in south-eastern Siberia where dozens of ...

Scientists find oldest known evidence of plague dating back 5,500 years Scientists have identified the oldest known evidence of plague, tracing the deadly disease back approximately 5,500 years and pushing its origins at least 200 years earlier than pr...

🎁🔗: A Deadly Outbreak of Plague, Nearly 5,000 Years Before the Black Death >>> "The oldest known cases, discovered among hunter-gatherers in Siberian graves, contradict the theory that the disease once was mild." via @carlzimmer.com www.nytimes.com/2026/06/17/s...

Ancient DNA from 5,500-year-old burials in Siberia reveals the earliest known plague outbreak. Researchers found Yersinia pestis infected entire hunter-gatherer families, showing devastating epidemics struck small, mobile communities near Lake Baikal. 🧬☠️ www.theguardian.com/science/2026...

Ancient DNA provides evidence of earliest known plague outbreak | Archaeology https://www.europesays.com/uk/1033135/ The earliest evidence for an outbreak of plague has been uncovered at late stone age cemeteries in south-eastern…#uk #news #uknews

[1/3] 2026-06-18 16:24:00 - [Researchers find evidence of earliest known plague epidemic] Researchers have detected and reconstructed the Yersinia pestis genome from more than 5,000 years ago in remains buried in an ancient cemetery in southeastern Siberia. This may be one of the

📰 **Hunter-gatherers in Siberia died of a plague outbreak 5,500 years ago** We can't blame the Neolithic Transition for the plague anymore. 📰 Source: Ars Technica 🔗 Link: https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/06/hunter-gatherers-in-siberia-died-of-a-plague-outbreak-5500-years-ago/

Oldest known plague outbreak killed hunter-gatherer children The shared grave of a boy and girl, whose remains were found to carry traces of Yersinia pestis DNA Vladimiri Bazaliiskii Ancient DNA from hunter-gatherers buried near Lake Baikal in what is now Siberia suggests there were deadly outbreaks of the plague as long as 5500 years ago. The finding runs counter to the long-standing idea that major disease outbreaks arose along with the adoption of farming during the so-called Neolithic revolution. “The expectation is that big outbreaks of disease affecting entire communities didn’t exist at all before the Neolithic revolution,” says Ruairidh Macleod at the University of Oxford. “What we see here is clear evidence for a really devastating outbreak of plague that’s affecting an entire community of hunter-gatherers at Baikal, and that flies in the face of that.” Read more How a surge in ancient plagues 5000 years ago shaped humanity The bacterium Yersinia pestis has caused some of the deadliest pandemics in history: the Plague of Justinian that began in AD 541, the Black Death from 1346 and a third plague pandemic that began in 1855 and killed at least 15 million people worldwide.…