Nature сэтгүүлд нийтлэгдсэн шинэ судалгаагаар тахлын нян нь эртний хүмүүсийн дунд хот суурин газар үүсэхээс ч өмнө тархсан байсныг илрүүлжээ.
Байгаль нуурын орчмын Сибирийн бүс нутгаас олдсон, 5500 жилийн тэртээх анчин-түүвэрлэгчдийн оршуулгын газраас авсан 46 хүний үлдэгдэлд шинжилгээ хийхэд 18-аас нь “Yersinia pestis” нянгийн ДНХ илэрсэн байна. Судлаачид эртний шүдний дээжээс нянгийн геномыг сэргээн тогтоосон нь энэхүү эмгэг төрүүлэгчийн хамгийн эртний хувилбаруудын нэг болохыг баталжээ.
Археологич Анджей Вебер болон түүний багийнхан оршуулгын газруудад хийсэн малтлагаар хүүхэд, өсвөр насныхны тоо харьцангуй их, мөн нэгэн зэрэг нас барсан гэр бүлийн гишүүд зэрэгцэн оршуулагдсан байгааг тогтоосон нь гэнэтийн халдварт өвчний дэгдэлт болсныг илтгэж байна. Нүүрстөрөгчийн он цаг тогтоох арга болон удамшлын шинжилгээгээр эдгээр хүмүүс богино хугацаанд тахлын улмаас нас барсан болохыг нотолжээ.
Судалгаагаар эртний тахлын омгууд нь хожим гарч ирсэн хувилбаруудад байдаггүй супер-антиген хорт бодисыг агуулж байсан нь илэрсэн байна. Энэхүү хүчин зүйл нь халдварыг илүү хүнд хэлбэрээр явуулж, хүний дархлааны тогтолцоог хүчтэй цочроодог байсан байж болзошгүй гэж эрдэмтэд үзэж байна.
Энэхүү олдвор нь тахал нь анх төв болон зүүн хойд Азиас гаралтай байх магадлалтайг харуулж байна. Тухайн үеийн хүмүүс тарвага зэрэг мэрэгч амьтадтай ойр харилцдаг байсан нь нян хүн амд дамжин халдварлах таатай нөхцөлийг бүрдүүлж байсан ажээ.
Дэлгэрэнгүйг эх сурвалжаас харах
↓Эх сурвалжийг нээх ↓
Plague is usually tied to medieval Europe, black death, crowded cities, and mass mortality that reshaped entire societies. A new study published in Nature pushes that timeline much further back, based on ancient teeth. The researchers suggests that Yersinia pestis, the bacterium responsible for plague, was already infecting and killing humans about 5,500 years ago.
The evidence comes from prehistoric hunter-gatherer cemeteries near Lake Baikal in eastern Siberia. These were small, mobile communities that lived long before farming or cities became widespread. Yet traces of plague have been preserved in their remains, hidden inside teeth that survived thousands of years underground.
DNA Evidence from Ancient Teeth
Researchers analysed remains from 46 individuals across four burial sites and detected Yersinia pestis DNA in 18 of them. The Nature report notes that this is close to 40 percent of the sample, which is a high proportion compared with some known medieval plague burial sites.
The genetic material came mainly from teeth, where traces of bloodstream infections can remain preserved for millennia. From these samples, scientists reconstructed early plague genomes and confirmed that these strains belong to some of the earliest branches of the pathogen’s family tree.
Lead author Ruairidh Macleod explained that combining genetic data with archaeological context and radiocarbon dating made it possible to reconstruct what happened in these communities.
“Based on the plague DNA, the genetic relationships between the victims, the archaeological analysis and the radiocarbon dating, we’ve built a really clear, complete picture of what happened during these outbreaks,” he explained.
The evidence suggests that plague was already established in human populations long before the rise of cities or long-distance trade networks.
Ancient Burial Patterns Hint at Sudden Outbreaks
One of the most striking clues came from the cemeteries themselves. At two of the sites, archaeologists found a large number of children and teenagers among the dead. The study highlights that this pattern had been difficult to explain for decades.
Radiocarbon dating shows that many of the burials happened within short time periods. This points to sudden mass mortality events rather than deaths occurring over many years. In several cases, people who were likely related, including siblings or parents and children, appear to have died at nearly the same time and were buried together.
Archaeologist Andrzej Weber from the University of Alberta said that:
“The unusually high number of children and the short timespan was a real puzzle that we’ve been trying to solve since the 1990s. Finding out that plague was the cause is extraordinary, but it makes so much sense.”
This indicates that early plague bacteria detected in teeth may have spread independently of flea vectors.
A Strange Plague Virulence Factor
The study also revealed a surprising genetic feature in these ancient strains, a superantigen toxin. The paper notes that this element is not present in later historical versions of Yersinia pestis and may have made infections more severe.
Superantigens can trigger strong immune responses, which can lead to serious inflammation and rapid deterioration in infected individuals. Their presence suggests that early plague may have had a different disease profile compared with the form known from medieval outbreaks.
Senior author Eske Willerslev, also affiliated with the University of Cambridge, said that these ancient strains carried a combination of virulence factors capable of causing highly lethal infections in prehistoric populations.
The research also supports the idea that plague likely originated in Central or Northeast Asia. The authors point to archaeological evidence from the Lake Baikal region showing frequent contact between hunter-gatherer groups and marmots, burrowing rodents that still carry plague today. This contact may have allowed repeated spillover events into humans long before permanent settlements existed.
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