According to new analysis of ancient DNA from Siberian cemeteries, the plague has been killing humans far longer than previously thought. Researchers found evidence of plague strains in nearly forty percent of hunter-gatherers who died 5,500 years ago—thousands of years before cities and agriculture made such outbreaks common. The disease appears to have sparked rapid, family-based epidemics that devastated communities of young people. The discovery rewrites our understanding of when plague emerged as a human pathogen.

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