Early divergent strains of Yersinia pestis in Eurasia 5,000 years ago.

The bacteria Yersinia pestis is the etiological agent of plague and has caused human pandemics with millions of deaths in historic times. How and when it originated remains contentious. Here, we report the oldest direct evidence of Yersinia pestis identified by ancient DNA in human teeth from Asia and Europe dating from 2,800 to 5,000 years ago. By sequencing the genomes, we find that these ancient plague strains are basal to all known Yersinia pestis. We find the origins of the Yersinia pestis lineage to be at least two times older than previous estimates. We also identify a temporal sequence of genetic changes that lead to increased virulence and the emergence of the bubonic plague. Our results show that plague infection was endemic in the human populations of Eurasia at least 3,000 years before any historical recordings of pandemics

Food, Economy and Social Complexity in the Bronze Age World : A Cross-Cultural Study

Despite the fact that the greater part of ingredients, such as dairy products or alcoholic drinks, was known already in the Neolithic, food technology of the Bronze Age changed significantly. This paper aims to investigate prehistoric dietary habits and comment on the stable isotope values (13C/15N) of human/faunal remains from several large Bronze Age cemeteries in Europe and beyond. The human skeletal material derives from Early Bronze Age Iberia (2300–2000 BC), mainland Greece (Late Helladic Period III), Bronze Age Transcaucasia (the Kura-Araxes culture 3400–2000 BC), steppes of Kazakhstan (1800 BC), and Early Bronze Age China in Shang period (1523–1046 BC). The aim of this study is to determine distinctive features of food practice in the Bronze Age with an overview of the economy and consumer behaviors in relation to religion and state formation processes

The Verteba Cave : A Subterranean Sanctuary of the Cucuteni-Trypillia Culture in Western Ukraine

In Eneolithic Europe, the complexity of mortuary differentiation increased with the complexity of the society at large. Human remains from the Verteba Cave provide a unique opportunity to study the lives, deaths and cultural practices of the Cucuteni-Trypillia culture in Western Ukraine. The subterranean sanctuary of Verteba was without a doubt a rallying point of both religious and social significance. Therefore, this investigation focuses on the role and character of ritual activities, the diversity and variety of religious orientations in the Eneolithic period and the question of how and for what reason this particular cave was modified from a natural space to a sacred place. We also seek to clarify the research potential of the site in relation to highly developed and relatively wide-spread religion with direct implications for the Cucuteni-Trypillia social structure

Bioarchaeology of Social Inequality in the Unetice Culture : A Case Study

The barrow in Kąty Wrocławskie was discovered near the city of Wrocław, SW Poland, in 1998. This paper presents the results collated from excavations, isotopic analyses (13C/15N), radiocarbon dating and lipid analyses of organic residues, found in this tomb. Social ranking/hierarchy shaped the lifestyle and identities, be they either individual or collective, upon which ultimately rigid or more flexible forms of stratification were built. However, archaeological debate regarding social inequality and leadership in the Unetice Culture is frequently reduced to bronze halberds, gold and the Leubingen barrow. We seek to determine the scale of social diversity among members of Early Bronze Age society. In this paper we present the biological profiles of the first group of Uneticean aristocracy buried in princely graves

Archaeological Potential of the Early Bronze Age Barrow Burial Ground in Szczepankowice : A Geophysical Survey and Field Evaluation

The site of Szczepankowice situated 24 kilometers southwest of Wrocław is considered to be one of the most important for studies of the Early Bronze Age in Central Europe. In this paper, we present a new assessment of the archaeological potential of the Szczepankowice (sites 1–4) and the surrounding area, based on research including metal detecting, field walking, excavations and geophysical prospection undertaken in 2012. The purpose of the evaluation was to determine the presence or absence, extent, condition, character, quality, and date of archaeological deposits within the area. Earlier discoveries including large quantities of boulders still found on the surface potentially indicated presence of funerary monuments such as barrows at Szczepankowice

Ancient hepatitis B viruses from the Bronze Age to the Medieval period.

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a major cause of human hepatitis. There is considerable uncertainty about the timescale of its evolution and its association with humans. Here we present 12 full or partial ancient HBV genomes that are between approximately 0.8 and 4.5 thousand years old. The ancient sequences group either within or in a sister relationship with extant human or other ape HBV clades. Generally, the genome properties follow those of modern HBV. The root of the HBV tree is projected to between 8.6 and 20.9 thousand years ago, and we estimate a substitution rate of 8.04 × 10-6-1.51 × 10-5 nucleotide substitutions per site per year. In several cases, the geographical locations of the ancient genotypes do not match present-day distributions. Genotypes that today are typical of Africa and Asia, and a subgenotype from India, are shown to have an early Eurasian presence. The geographical and temporal patterns that we observe in ancient and modern HBV genotypes are compatible with well-documented human migrations during the Bronze and Iron Ages1,2. We provide evidence for the creation of HBV genotype A via recombination, and for a long-term association of modern HBV genotypes with humans, including the discovery of a human genotype that is now extinct. These data expose a complexity of HBV evolution that is not evident when considering modern sequences alone.This work was supported by: The Danish National Research Foundation, The Danish National Advanced Technology Foundation (The Genome Denmark platform, grant 019-2011-2), The Villum Kann Rasmussen Foundation, KU2016, European Union FP7 programme ANTIGONE (grant agreement No. 278976), European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation programmes, COMPARE (grant agreement No. 643476),VIROGENESIS (grant agreement No. 634650). The National Reference Center for Hepatitis B and D Viruses is supported by the German Ministry of Health via the Robert Koch Institute, Berlin, Germany. BB was supported by Taylor Famil-Asia Foundation Endowed Chair in Ecology and Conservation Biology