https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/may/30/oldest-evidence-of-plague-in-britain-found-in-4000-year-old-human-remains
I've seen this movie...
Interesting. I didn't realize that the Plague of Justinian (which I think was the most deadly in terms of percentage of population in areas where there are estimates) was the same parasite as the Black Death, let alone that it had circulated for thousands of years.
QuoteDNA evidence published in 2015 indicates Y. pestis infected humans 5,000 years ago in Bronze Age Eurasia,[55] but genetic changes that made it highly virulent did not occur until about 4,000 years ago.[58] The highly virulent version capable of transmission by fleas through rodents, humans, and other mammals was found in two individuals associated with the Srubnaya culture from the Samara region in Russia from around 3,800 years ago and an Iron Age individual from Kapan, Armenia, from around 2,900 years ago.[58][55] This indicates that at least two lineages of Y. pestis were circulating during the Bronze Age in Eurasia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yersinia_pestis
Hmm. There was a big late Neolithic population decline in Britain that has not yet been explained. So I wonder if this could be it.
They talk about the Bronze Age but the Bronze Age came 1,000 later to Britain compared to Southern Europe and the Med.