The population in northern Europe collapsed about 5,000 years ago, decimating Stone Age farming communities across the region. The cause of this calamity, called the Neolithic decline, has remained a matter of debate.
New research based on DNA obtained from human bones and teeth excavated from ancient burial tombs in Scandinavia—seven from an area in Sweden called Falbygden, one from coastal Sweden close to Gothenburg, and one from Denmark—suggests disease, specifically the plague, may have driven the Neolithic decline.
