The spatiotemporal distribution of human pathogens in ancient Eurasia
Journal article, 2025
Infectious diseases have had devastating effects on human populations throughout history, but important questions about their origins and past dynamics remain1. To create an archaeogenetic-based spatiotemporal map of human pathogens, we screened shotgun-sequencing data from 1,313 ancient humans covering 37,000 years of Eurasian history. We demonstrate the widespread presence of ancient bacterial, viral and parasite DNA, identifying 5,486 individual hits against 492 species from 136 genera. Among those hits, 3,384 involve known human pathogens2, many of which had not previously been identified in ancient human remains. Grouping the ancient microbial species according to their likely reservoir and type of transmission, we find that most groups are identified throughout the entire sampling period. Zoonotic pathogens are only detected from around 6,500 years ago, peaking roughly 5,000 years ago, coinciding with the widespread domestication of livestock3. Our findings provide direct evidence that this lifestyle change resulted in an increased infectious disease burden. They also indicate that the spread of these pathogens increased substantially during subsequent millennia, coinciding with the pastoralist migrations from the Eurasian Steppe4,5.
Author
Martin Sikora
University of Copenhagen
Elisabetta Canteri
University of Copenhagen
Antonio Fernandez-Guerra
University of Copenhagen
Nikolay Oskolkov
Lund University
Rasmus Ågren
Chalmers, Life Sciences, Systems and Synthetic Biology
Lena Hansson
Definitive Healthcare
Evan K. Irving-Pease
University of Copenhagen
Barbara Mühlemann
Charité University Medicine Berlin
Sofie Holtsmark Nielsen
Statens Serum Institut
Gabriele Scorrano
University of Rome Tor Vergata
University of Copenhagen
Morten E. Allentoft
University of Copenhagen
Curtin University
Frederik Valeur Seersholm
University of Copenhagen
Hannes Schroeder
University of Copenhagen
Charleen Gaunitz
University of Copenhagen
Jesper Stenderup
University of Copenhagen
Lasse Vinner
University of Copenhagen
Terry C. Jones
Charité University Medicine Berlin
University of Cambridge
Björn Nystedt
Uppsala University
Karl Göran Sjögren
University of Gothenburg
Julian Parkhill
Department of Veterinary Medicine
Lars Fugger
University of Oxford
Fernando Racimo
University of Copenhagen
Kristian Kristiansen
University of Copenhagen
University of Gothenburg
Astrid K.N. Iversen
University of Oxford
University of Copenhagen
Eske Willerslev
Universität Bremen
University of Copenhagen
University of Cambridge
Nature
0028-0836 (ISSN) 1476-4687 (eISSN)
Vol. 643 8073 1011-1019Subject Categories (SSIF 2025)
Molecular Biology
Microbiology
DOI
10.1038/s41586-025-09192-8
PubMed
40634616