How did ancient DNA finally reveal where the Black Death pandemic originated?

The answer

In June 2022, a study published in Nature pinpointed the geographic origin of the Black Death to the shores of Lake Issyk-Kul in modern Kyrgyzstan. Researchers led by Johannes Krause extracted Yersinia pestis DNA from teeth of individuals buried in a 1338–1339 CE cemetery near the lake, predating the plague's arrival in Europe by nearly a decade. The tombstones themselves noted death from an unspecified pestilence. Genomic analysis showed this strain was the direct ancestor of the one that devastated Europe from 1347 to 1353, killing an estimated 75–200 million people. The pathogen likely spread westward along Silk Road trade routes from Central Asia.