About the Authors

Stephanie Haensch

Affiliation Institute for Anthropology, Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany

Raffaella Bianucci

Affiliations Laboratory of Criminalistic Sciences Department of Anatomy, Pharmacology and Legal Medicine, University of Turin, Turin, Italy, Unité d'Anthropologie Bioculturelle, Faculté de Medecine, University of Mediterranean-CNRS-EFS, Marseille, France

Michel Signoli

Affiliations Unité d'Anthropologie Bioculturelle, Faculté de Medecine, University of Mediterranean-CNRS-EFS, Marseille, France, Centre d'Études Préhistoire, Antiquité, Moyen-âge, UMR 6130 CNRS–250 University of Nice, Valbonne, France

Minoarisoa Rajerison

Affiliation Center for Plague, Institute Pasteur de Madagascar, World Health Organization Collaborating, Antananarivo, Madagascar

Michael Schultz

Affiliation Department of Anatomy and Embryology Medical Faculty, Georg-August University, Göttingen, Germany

Sacha Kacki

Affiliations Inrap, Villeneuve-d'Ascq Archaeological Center, Villeneuve-d'Ascq, France, Laboratoire d'Anthropologie des Populations du Passé, Université Bordeaux 1, Talence, France

Marco Vermunt

Affiliation Department of Monuments and Archaeology, Municipality of Bergen op Zoom, Bergen op Zoom, The Netherlands

Darlene A. Weston

Affiliations Barge's Anthropologica, Department of Anatomy and Embryology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands, Division of Archaeological Sciences, University of Bradford, Bradford, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom, Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany

Derek Hurst

Affiliation Worcestershire Historic Environment and Archaeology Service, Worcestershire County Council, Worcester, United Kingdom

Mark Achtman

Affiliation Environmental Research Institute, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland

Elisabeth Carniel

Affiliation Yersinia Research Unit, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France

Barbara Bramanti

bramanti@uni-mainz.de

Affiliation Institute for Anthropology, Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived the experiment: R. Bianucci, M. Schultz, B. Bramanti. Carried out aDNA research: S. Haensch, B. Bramanti. Performed the RDT analysis: R. Bianucci, M. Rajerison. Carried out the data analysis together with E. Carniel and M. Achtman: S. Haensch, B. Bramanti. Contributed with archaeological and historical data: M. Signoli, S. Kacki, M. Vermunt, D. Weston, D. Hurst. Wrote the paper: S. Haensch, M. Achtman, E. Carniel, B. Bramanti.