An international team of researchers from the Max Planck Institute of Infection Biology, Harvard University, the University of Arkansas, Max Planck Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology, and Seoul National University investigated the bones and teeth of Bronze Age livestock at the pastoralist site Arkaim (Russia), a Eurasian Steppe site belonging to the Sintashta-Petrovka culture known for its innovations in cattle, sheep, and horse husbandry. There they identified a 4,000-year-old sheep infected with the same LNBA lineage of Y. pestis that was infecting people at the time. This study reveals the connections between domesticated animals and the spread of one of the world's most infamous bacteria, providing insight into how the pathogen was so successful in infecting people across thousands of kilometers over thousands of years.