Stone axes throw new light on Baltic stone age mortuary rites.

Despite their ubiquity, Mesolithic lithic tools given as funerary offerings have rarely been studied in detail. Whereas personal ornaments (e.g.

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 Riņņukalns, 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.