New Discovery That Hunter-Gatherer Children Died of Plague More Than Five Millennia ...
smithsonianmag.com
Ancient plague DNA found in Siberian hunter-gatherer children upends the long-held theory that dense, sedentary populations were a prerequisite for epidemic disease.
Epidemiological Transition TheoryGerm TheoryPopulation Density HypothesisEvolutionary Medicine
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Theory Briefing
- Skeletons of nomadic families in Siberia tested positive for Yersinia pestis, the bacterium behind plague, over 5,000 years ago.
- The discovery challenges the prevailing theory that plague required large, settled agricultural populations to take hold and spread.
- Finding the pathogen in children's remains suggests early plague could infect even small, mobile groups — rewriting epidemic origin models.