Key Facts

• The outbreak happened near Russia’s Lake Baikal among hunter-gatherer groups.
• Researchers found Yersinia pestis DNA in the teeth of people buried in four ancient cemeteries.
• This is the earliest known plague outbreak in history.
• The oldest strain of the plague bacteria was sequenced from these samples.
• It challenges previous beliefs that plague became deadly only after humans started farming and living in towns.
• Hunter-gatherers were thought less likely to spread disease because they lived in small, moving groups.
• The discovery shows infectious disease could devastate ancient mobile communities too.
• Archaeologists found many children’s remains that died around the same time, suggesting a sudden tragedy.