Did a Deadly Plague Destroy Neolithic Europe?

What caused the Neolithic Decline in Europe? Was it the first great plague in history? And if so, did it cause a Neolithic apocalypse?

In the 4th Millennium BC, Neolithic Europe experienced a sustained decline. By about 3000 BC Western Steppe Herders like the Yamnaya and related groups migrated west into Europe, changing the genetics and culture forever, and bringing about the Bronze Age.

The male lineages of Neolithic Europe came to an end as the steppe herders had offspring with the Neolithic farmer women. Did this only happen because the settled farmers had already been brought to their knees by waves of plague?

In this video we look at the first recorded samples of the plague - Yersinia Pestis - the same bacterium that caused the Black Death and the Plague of Justinian and Bronze Age plagues.

Did the disease first become dangerous in the vast proto-cities of the Cucuteni-Trypillia culture in Eastern Europe?

*Related videos referenced in this video*

Cucuteni-Trypillia culture: https://youtu.be/Bk2Qbf1YQbI
Neolithic Britain: https://youtu.be/ZuZLxWvv5vg
Funnelbeaker culture: https://youtu.be/iJYvhf0VVi0
Pitted Ware culture: https://youtu.be/_rspqObP2yg
The First Horse Riders: https://youtu.be/AMHqp0M0T4Q

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*Music*

Multiple tracks by Lombus ➜ https://lombus.bandcamp.com/
Away - Patrick Patrikios
Thunderbird - Kevin MacLeod

*Video Sources*

Early Divergent Strains of Yersinia pestis in Eurasia 5,000 Years Ago - Rasmussen et al (2015)
➜ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4644222/

Emergence and Spread of Basal Lineages of Yersinia pestis during the Neolithic Decline - Rascovan (2019)
➜ https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(18)31464-8?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0092867418314648%3Fshowall%3Dtrue#

Analysis of 3800-year-old Yersinia pestis genomes suggests Bronze Age origin for bubonic plague - Spyrou et al (2018)
➜ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5993720/

*Video Chapters*

00:00 The Black Death in History
02:02 The Plague of Justinian
02:46 Neolithic Plague
04:49 How the Plague Kills You
06:43 Plague Emerges in Cucuteni-Trypillia
11:21 Historical Cause and Effect
13:01 Did Plague Depopulate Neolithic Europe?

Видео Did a Deadly Plague Destroy Neolithic Europe? канала Dan Davis History