The plague killed humans before the invention of farming
Ancient DNA from Siberian hunter gatherers reveals that deadly plague outbreaks predated permanent settlements and high density living by hundreds of years.
For decades, historians believed that the plague only became a lethal threat once humans abandoned their nomadic lifestyles. The prevailing theory suggested that the disease required the crowded conditions of farming villages, along with the rats and fleas they attracted, to reach epidemic proportions. However, genetic evidence from burial sites near Lake Baikal in Siberia has overturned this timeline.