5,000-year-old hunter-gatherer is earliest person to die with the plague

Remains of man found in Latvia had DNA fragments and proteins of bacterium that causes plague

A hunter-gatherer who lived more than 5,000 years ago is the earliest known person to have died with the plague, researchers have revealed.

Stone-age communities in western Europe experienced a huge population decline about 5,500 years ago, an event that is thought to have subsequently enabled a huge migration of people from the east.