Most people are familiar with the Black Death, a plague that killed millions of people during the Middle Ages. But did you know there was a similar plague years earlier?
This plague featured an earlier strain of Yersinia pestis and occurred during the Bronze Age, killing many across Eurasia before vanishing into thin air. Unlike the Black Death, which spread via infected rats, the Bronze Age plague survived for so long and spread so far, and this mystery remains.
Now, a new study published in Cell seems to have unlocked part of the puzzle. Scientists have discovered traces of* Y. pestis* in the DNA of a 4,000-year-old sheep, the first evidence of the Bronze Age plague in a non-human host.
Read More: [The Plague Has Infected Europeans For at Least 4,000 Years](https://…
Most people are familiar with the Black Death, a plague that killed millions of people during the Middle Ages. But did you know there was a similar plague years earlier?
This plague featured an earlier strain of Yersinia pestis and occurred during the Bronze Age, killing many across Eurasia before vanishing into thin air. Unlike the Black Death, which spread via infected rats, the Bronze Age plague survived for so long and spread so far, and this mystery remains.
Now, a new study published in Cell seems to have unlocked part of the puzzle. Scientists have discovered traces of* Y. pestis* in the DNA of a 4,000-year-old sheep, the first evidence of the Bronze Age plague in a non-human host.
Read More: The Plague Has Infected Europeans For at Least 4,000 Years
Finding the Missing Link in the Bronze Age Plague Story
When analyzing these sheep remains, researchers weren’t even looking for evidence of Y. pestis. Instead, this research team uses the DNA in fossilized animal bones and teeth to trace the spread of domesticated cattle, goats, and sheep from the Fertile Crescent to Eurasia. Tracing the routes of domesticated animals can help scientists better understand where and how societies and empires took root.
While analyzing a sheep bone from Arkaim, the team was shocked to find traces of Y. pestis DNA.
“It was alarm bells for my team. This was the first time we had recovered the genome from Yersinia pestis in a non-human sample,” said archaeologist Taylor Hermes in a press release. “We were extra excited because Arkaim is linked to the Sintashta culture, which is known for early horse riding, impressive bronze weaponry and substantial geneflow into Central Asia.”
How Sheep Can Teach Us About the Plague
The domesticated sheep remains were excavated in the 1980s and 1990s from the fortified settlement of Arkaim. Arkaim is located in the Southern Ural Mountains, and its former population belonged to the Sintashta culture, which is an important part of human history. This group was among the first to become proficient in horseback riding, which afforded them greater mobility and access across Eurasia.
The strain of Y. pestis found in the sheep bone has also been found across Eurasia, in populations living thousands of miles apart. Although sheep are far from being this strain of *Y. *pestis’s natural reservoir, this new evidence of the Bronze Age plague being present in sheep helps refine the plague’s story.
“It had to be more than people moving. Our plague sheep gave us a breakthrough,” explained Hermes. “We now see it as a dynamic between people, livestock, and some still undefined ‘natural reservoir’ for it, which could be rodents on the grasslands of the Eurasian steppe or migratory birds.”
Searching For the Bronze Age Plague’s Natural Reservoir
The next step in the journey is to try to narrow down the plague’s natural reservoir, which is the animal that can carry the bacteria without becoming sick. The research team is continuing to excavate areas of the Southern Ural Mountains in hopes of finding more examples of Y. pestis infections in both humans and animals.
Although it occurred thousands of years ago, Hermes hopes that this work will inspire us to exercise greater care when disturbing natural environments for economic gain.
“It’s important to have a greater respect for the forces of nature,” concluded Hermes.
Read More: Source of History’s First Plague Pandemic Has Been Unearthed in Buried Teeth
Article Sources
Our writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:
- This article references information from the recent study published in Cell: Bronze Age Yersinia pestis genome from sheep sheds light on hosts and evolution of a prehistoric plague lineage