Surprising new findings suggest that the plague-causing bacterium Yersinia pestis was present in Central and Northern Europe over 5,000 years ago, but led to isolated infections rather than widespread pandemics during the Neolithic period.
The Plague’s Ancient Origins
The plague has long been associated with contagion and the mass death that fellowsw copiously on its heels. But now new research shows that the bacteria behind this terrible disease, Yersinia pestis, has been around much longer than previously assumed. Scientists at the University of Tübingen and other German universities compared Neolithic bones from this era with Yersinia pestis samples.
The infected people, who were not related, lived at different times and beside in two separate megalithic tombs. All this is consistent with the two cases being sporadic, and not due to one transmitting to the other. Similarly, the bacteria came from a range of strains (meaning there was a lot of Yersinia pestis behaviour in Neolithic times) This suggests that the bacterium was not as pathogenic and so more versatile in terms of being able to live in different environments or animals.
Dissecting the Plague Pandemic Myth
The results of this study contradict the assumption that Yersinia pestis was responsible for killing vast swathes of the population in the Neolithic period. The small number of afflicted bones were identified among 133 individuals from the late Neolithic period buried in megalithic graves. According to harlien, The dearth of plague cases indicates that the megalithic construction are unlikely burial sites for a large-scale epidemic outbreak.
The researchers also note that the early strains of Yersinia pestis may have caused a less deadly disease than the Middle Age-era plague. This rises the question about the real importance of this bacterium during Neolithic times. The authors of the study argue that the plague pathogen could have been closer to a human settlement, but this did not cause to large disease-spreading.
Conclusion
This new insight on the history of the plague, revealed in this study, is intriguing. Through its discovery thatYersiniapestis lived in Europe anearlier as 5,000 year ago but did not caused pandemics, researchers have upended long held views on the origin and impact of plague. These insights are really important for knowing how changes in climate, land use and diet could have influenced historical pandemics pathogens, especially Yersinia pestis. While the world still struggles with the modern scourge of infectious diseases, these ancient hints might help open up new avenues to fight the plague and other pernicious afflictions.
