Posted on 01/15/2026 9:54:47 AM PST by SunkenCiv
According to a statement released by the University of Vienna, a team of scientists from the University of Vienna, the University of Tartu, Cambridge University, and University College London have reconstructed the genomes of human betaherpesvirus 6A and 6B (HHV-6A/B) from samples taken from human remains recovered from archaeological sites in Europe. Today, HHV-6B infects about 90 percent of children by age two, causing roseola infantum, also known as "sixth disease, " an illness characterized by a rash and a fever. In addition to causing illness, these viruses are capable of integrating into human chromosomes and remaining dormant. Such inherited viral copies are found in about one percent of the modern population. An analysis of nearly 4,000 sets of ancient and historic human remains detected HHV-6A/B virus genomes in 11 samples. The oldest sample came from a girl buried in Italy between 1100 and 600 B.C. Both HHV-6A and HHV-6B were detected in remains from medieval England, Belgium, and Estonia, while the inherited form of HHV-6B was identified in several of the individuals from England. "Modern genetic data suggest that HHV-6 may have been evolving with humans since our migration out of Africa, " said Meriam Guellil of the University of Vienna. "These ancient genomes now provide the first concrete proof of their presence in the deep human past, " she explained. Read the original scholarly article about this research in Science Advances. To read about the study of diseases using ancient microbial DNA, go to "Worlds Within Us."
(Excerpt) Read more at archaeology.org ...
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Scientists Study Spread of Bronze Age Plague | Archaeology Magazine | January 7, 2026 | According to a statement released by the University of Arkansas, an international team of researchers has identified a possible Bronze Age host of the plague bacterium, Yersinia pestis. Beginning about 5,000 years ago, the plague infected people in Eurasia for a period of about 2,000 years, but it was not clear to scientists how the disease spread. DNA from Y. pestis has now been identified in the remains of 4,000-year-old domesticated sheep from the site of Arkaim, a fortified settlement in the Southern Ural Mountains belonging to the Sintashta culture, which is known for herding, horse riding, and bronze weaponry. "Our plague sheep gave us a breakthrough," said team member Taylor Hermes of the University of Arkansas. "We now see [the transmission of the plague bacterium] as a dynamic between people, livestock, and some still unidentified 'natural reservoir' for it, which could be rodents on the grasslands of the Eurasian steppe or migratory birds," Hermes said. Next, Hermes and his colleagues will look for animals that may have served as this natural reservoir for the Y. pestis bacterium during the Bronze Age. Read the original scholarly article about this research in Cell. For more, go to "Bronze Age Plague," one of ARCHAEOLOGY's Top 10 Discoveries of 2018.
The more things change.....
Did they have to wear masks?
LOL in the iron age everything was a test from food to water and what plant helped or killed you.
It a miracle humans made it this far.
Lazz is certainly a product of this “pox”
Don’t fool around with them sheeps.
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