Uncovering Britain's Oldest Plague with 4000-Year-Old DNA

Researchers have discovered the oldest known cases of the plague in Great Britain, dating back 4,000 years, according to a paper published in the journal Nature Communications. The bacterial DNA was found in human skeletal remains at two different mass burial sites in England, suggesting the disease was widespread during the late Neolithic period and the Bronze Age. The team took samples from the skeletal remains of 34 individuals across the two sites, drilling into their teeth and extracting dental pulp, which can trap remnants of the DNA of infectious diseases. The findings demonstrate the importance of scholars working together across disciplines and show that large-scale disease transmission dates back to prehistoric times.