News Archaeology

The oldest known plague outbreak struck hunter-gatherers 5,500 years ago

The find challenges the idea that plague needed dense farming villages to become deadly

A grieving person kneels by a lakeside grave, while another person holds a large drum behind them.

Graves near Lake Baikal in Siberia are the earliest yet found to contain DNA from plague bacteria. Researchers think the deaths were caused by an outbreak of the disease about 5,500 years ago.

Kelvin Wilson

By Tom Metcalfe

The oldest-known traces of plague, around 5,500 years old, have been discovered in hunter-gatherer burials in Siberia.