A team of Danish scientists found traces of hepatitis B in human DNA dating back to the Bronze Age 4,500 years ago, Science Alert reported.
According to the portal, this is the earliest evidence of the existence of this virus.
Earlier, the earliest evidence of hepatitis B found so far, announced earlier this year, was only four and a half centuries old and was detected in the remains of a child who lived in medieval Italy.
The team of scientists, led by geneticist Eske Willerslev of the University of Copenhagen and colleagues at the University of Cambridge, analyzed the genomes of 304 individuals who lived between 7,000 and 200 years ago and found signs of the hepatitis B virus in 25 of these individuals .
The technique of gene extraction used by scientists also revealed that a possible migration route from the devastating Prytania of Justinian, which struck the Byzantine Empire in the sixth century, originated in Mongolia.
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