Around 5,300 years ago, at the end of the Stone Age, the population of Scandinavia and northwestern Europe declined, leading to the disappearance of farming communities. ‘People don’t build stone like Stonehenge,’ says geneticist Frederik Seersholm of the University of Copenhagen.
Settlements were abandoned and entire populations disappeared. Nomadic cultures moved westward. The causes of the refugees are controversial, with theories ranging from war to agricultural crisis. It was previously unclear how the Neolithic plague was transmitted to humans. ‘There is a feeling that the oldest plague has not spread,’ explained Dr. Seersholm, the newspaper’s director. That idea is no longer there. “We cannot prove exactly how it happened, at least not yet,’ said Dr. Seersholm. But it is important that we can prove it. The new leader has supported a powerful and often militant right-wing figure as a party that suffered a major defeat in the July elections. Partly financed by new taxes will help strengthen the country’s weak economy. Months in prison for a court ruling on allegations related to Syrian refugees. It occurs mostly in a form that spreads to the glands and nerves and is often spread by fleas and rats. The more common pneumonia causes pneumonia, is spread by airborne droplets and spreads between humans and animals. The book The Plague says that the first example of the Black Death can be found in the Old Testament, when the Philistines experienced a “bloat” after taking the Ark of the Covenant from Israel. Since then, Y. pestis has dominated our epidemic literature. It has wreaked social and economic havoc in Western Europe (named after a surviving Byzantine emperor) and claimed the lives of 30 to 50 million people over two centuries. It is a strain of Yersinia pestis that can be transmitted from wild prairie dogs to humans. The first incident occurred in the 14th century at the Battle of Kaffa when the Mongols threw the dead over the city walls. In the nearly 500-year history of epidemics that have ravaged Europe’s population, including the Great Plague of London in 1665-66, which marked the beginning of the Black Death, the ‘Dead Man’s Cart’ roaring past, the ‘removal of the dead’ is unbearable. The cry of forgetfulness echoes through the streets. It has killed an estimated 12 million people. Although a small percentage of plague still occurs (an average of 7 cases per year in the United States), it can now be treated with antibiotics if diagnosed early. Scientists obtained the exact DNA of Y. pestis after linking it to a transplant from a sick cat to a Colorado veterinarian who had contracted Y. pestis. A decade later, scientists discovered plague in Eurasian humans dating back 5,000 years, in teeth and skulls found in what is now Latvia. More recently, in 2023, the oldest evidence of plague in England was found in the tissues of three 4,000-year-old skeletons. Pooja Swali, a geneticist at University College London who identified the organisms, said: ‘The ability to identify ancient organisms from patterns of destruction spanning thousands of years is remarkable.’
The authors of the new study traced the genome to 2900 BC. Yersinia pestis was the most common of the six viruses identified, found in about 17% of the remains. ‘In short, one in six people had plague at the time of death,’ Dr Seersholm said, adding that this number may underestimate the true number of infections. In this study, the researchers mapped the DNA of six generations of one family in the grave, spanning about 120 years. Twelve of the 38 families were infected with Y. pestis, which Dr Seersholm believes is likely because the pneumonia was caused by the absence of Y. pestis, which spread from wolves to mice and humans. ‘So there’s no need for mice,’ she said. Her team determined that the plague came in three distinct waves, evolving with each generation. The first two waves were relatively mild, but the third wave appeared to be more severe and could lead to the decline of the Neolithic Age.
Swali praised the study’s results but remained skeptical about attributing the high number of deaths to plague rather than disease. ‘Yersinia pestis may have played a role in the latter’s disappearance or export,’ he said. But many other factors, such as starvation or undiagnosed diseases, could also have contributed to the population decline.
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