https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/jun/29/5000-year-old-hunter-gatherer-is-earliest-person-to-die-with-the-plague

Remains of man found in Latvia had DNA fragments and proteins of bacterium that causes plague

Nicola DavisScience correspondent@NicolaKSDavisTue 29 Jun 2021 11.00 EDT

A hunter-gatherer who lived more than 5,000 years ago is the earliest known person to have died with the plague, researchers have revealed.

Stone-age communities in westernEuropeexperienced a huge population decline about 5,500 years ago, an event that is thought to have subsequently enabled a huge migration of people from the east.

The plague has been posited as an explanation after it was previously been found in stone-age individuals,including a 20-year-old woman from a rural farming community in Sweden.

However, researchers claim their new discovery casts doubt on the idea suggesting the nature of the strain found in hunter-gatherer would…