Indo-Europeans brought plague to Europe?

[Brian G Turner]

Interesting to see the migration of Indo-Europeans into Europe apparently brought the bacterium responsible for the plague with them: Plague reached Europe by Stone Age

While it's postulated that this may have helped wipe out local Neolithic populations, a previous article suggested that the bacterium wasn't yet as virulent as when it returned as The Black Death in the Middle Ages: Plague traced back to Bronze Age

However, it's still fascinating to see that this postulated migration brought more than just the basis for most European languages.

 

[Dave]

Was that the same time that farmers came to live amongst the existing hunter/gatherers?

Since most, if not all, of the common contagious diseases are those that have jumped the species barrier, from domestic animals to man, and happened because we began living in close proximity with our farmed animals (bringing them indoors to long houses during the night) wasn't it an inevitable thing?

Rather than blame them as immigrants, blame them as farmers or blame farming. However, farming did allow us to feed more people, so the population wouldn't have risen so much otherwise, and it is only natural selection (harsh, but only the weakest individuals would have died.)

Very similar to the (more modern) introduction of smallpox to the Americas.

 

[Brian G Turner]

That is a very good point to raise - thank you.

 

[sknox]

The plague hit before the 1348-52 disaster. The most notable one is 6thc AD, but there's some circumstantial evidence for even earlier. By "hit" here I of course mean Europe. Being a European historian. I'm not at all familiar with evidence from elsewhere.