Oxford Uni helps find oldest evidence of plague in Britain

Scientists identified three cases of Yersinia pestis, the bacteria causing the plague, in human remains – two in a mass burial in Charterhouse Warren in Somerset, and one in a ring cairn monument in Levens in Cumbria.

Francis Crick Institute scientists, who worked with the University of Oxford, the Levens Local History Group and the Wells and Mendip Museum, took small skeletal samples from 34 individuals across the two sites, looking for the presence of Yersinia pestis in teeth.

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This technique involves drilling into the tooth and extracting dental pulp, which can trap DNA remnants of infectious diseases.

Pooja Swali, first author and PhD student at the Crick, said: “The ability to detect ancient pathogens from degraded samples, from thousands of years ago, is incredible.

“These genomes can inform us of the spread and evolutionary changes of pathogens in the past, and hopefully help us understand which genes may be important in the spread of infectious diseases.”

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Previously the plague has been identified in several individuals from Eurasia between 5,000 and 2,500 years before present (BP), a period spanning the Late Neolithic and Bronze Age (termed LNBA).

However, the researchers suggest it had not been seen before in Britain at this point in time.

Pontus Skoglund, group leader of the Ancient Genomics Laboratory at the Crick, said: “This research is a new piece of the puzzle in our understanding of the ancient genomic record of pathogens and humans, and how we co-evolved.”