Oldest Plague Outbreak Discovered in Siberia – Nearly 5,000 Years Before the Black Death
The oldest known cases of plague have been found in Siberian hunter-gatherer graves, contradicting the theory that the disease was once mild.
Researchers have uncovered the oldest known evidence of plague in the graves of hunter-gatherers in Siberia. The remains date back nearly 5,000 years before the Black Death, which devastated Europe in the 14th century.
Previously, many scientists believed that the plague was originally a mild illness and only became deadly over time. However, this new discovery suggests that a deadly outbreak of plague occurred among prehistoric hunter-gatherers.
The findings challenge existing theories about the evolution of the plague and indicate that the disease was already lethal thousands of years ago, long before it caused major pandemics in historical times.
