Ancient Epidemics: Scientists Uncover Lethal Stone Age Threat

Bacterial poisoning via food and water – but also via contact such as kisses – caused a lot of suffering during the Stone Age. A recent study indicates that diseases that today can be treated with antibiotics were then fatal.

People living close together and not having access to antibiotics sound like a nightmare. Yet, this is how we spent much of our history and prehistory. A new international study coordinated from the Centre for Palaeogenetics in Stockholm explores microbes during the Stone Age in Scandinavia.

Different types of microbes are described, both the kind of microbes which are expected in a healthy person, but also several that must have caused pain and problems: Neisseria meningitidis that spreads through close contact between humans – for example when kissing, Yersinia entrecolitica that is often picked up from contaminated food and water, and Salmonella enterica that is a common cause of today’s food poisonings.