Natural History and Exploitation of the Harbor Porpoise (Phocoena phocoena Linnaeus, 1758) during the Neolithic (ca. 4000-2000 cal. BC) in the Eastern Baltic Region.

Compared with the history of seals in the Baltic Sea, the porpoise has received much less research attention. The harbor porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) has been quite rare in the eastern Baltic in recent centuries, but according to archaeological finds, its population was quite numerous here ca. 6000-4000 years ago (ca. 4000-2000 cal. BC). This paper deals with all known archaeological assemblages of porpoise so far discovered in the eastern Baltic (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania), discusses the hunting strategies and studies the exploitation of this small cetacean by the Neolithic hunter-gatherers. Fauna historical aspects include new archaeological data in addition to those published previously. We consider whether these new data change the temporal and spatial pattern of porpoise hunting and examine how, in addition to the expected use of porpoise meat and blubber, the porpoise's toothed mandibles were used for patterning ceramics.

A 5,000-year-old hunter-gatherer already plagued by Yersinia pestis.

A 5,000-year-old Yersinia pestis genome (RV 2039) is reconstructed from a hunter-fisher-gatherer (5300-5050 cal BP) buried at Rinnukalns, Latvia. RV 2039 is the first in a series of ancient strains that evolved shortly after the split of Y. pestis from its antecessor Y. pseudotuberculosis ∼7,000 years ago. The genomic and phylogenetic characteristics of RV 2039 are consistent with the hypothesis that this very early Y. pestis form was most likely less transmissible and maybe even less virulent than later strains. Our data do not support the scenario of a prehistoric pneumonic plague pandemic, as suggested previously for the Neolithic decline. The geographical and temporal distribution of the few prehistoric Y. pestis cases reported so far is more in agreement with single zoonotic events.