Oldest evidence of plague outbreak found in prehistoric graves, rewriting the disease’s history

Science NewsOldest evidence of a plague outbreak found in prehistoric graves, rewriting the disease’s historyA new study suggests an ancient version of plague most likely spread among family members in hunter-gatherer groups, with children thought to have been particularly vulnerable.Listen to this article with a free account00:0000:00In a shared grave containing a 12-to-15-year-old boy and a 13-to-16-year-old girl who were not biologically related, plague DNA was obtained from the remains.Courtesy Vladimiri BazaliiskiiShareAdd NBC News to GoogleJune 17, 2026, 11:00 AM EDTBy Evan BushIn prehistoric graves of children in Siberia, scientists have found the world’s oldest evidence of a plague outbreak.Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.The discovery, described in a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature, rewrites the history of one of the most consequential diseases in human history. The graves, on the banks of the Angara River, contained remains from multiple generations of hunter-gatherers, along with archaeological remnants like arrowheads that date back about 5,500 years. When researchers did genetic testing on the skeletons’ teeth, they found DNA of the bacterium that causes plague in about 40%.A shared grave with three children, two of whom were identified as half-sisters 9 to 10 years old and 5 to 6 years old. The third occupant is a boy 11 to 12 years old who wasn’t closely related but was buried at the same time and found to have plague DNA.Courtesy Vladimiri BazaliiskiiThe study’s lead author, Ruairidh Macleod, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Oxford, said one grave contained a set of cousins or sisters 4 to 9 years old.“We see three very young girls, all buried at the same time, having presumably died at the same time. We detect lots of plague DNA in all three of these individuals,” he said, adding, “It’s clearly having a very tragic impact on the children in particular in th...