Neolithic bones reveal isolated Yersinia pestis infections, not pandemics
Since the catastrophic pandemics of the Middle Ages, one disease has almost proverbially symbolized contagion and death: the plague. It is now known that the plague bacterium Yersinia pestis has been present in Central and Northern Europe for more than 5,000 years. However, it is still uncertain whether it also led to pandemics and mass deaths in its early forms.