Hookworms hitched rides with nomads
By Ben Harder
Horseback-riding herders known as Scythians or Scythes once traveled far and wide across Eurasia. Their dead have the parasites to prove it.
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A man and a woman who were buried separately about 2,300 years ago and recently excavated in Berel, Kazakhstan, were infected with hookworms during their lifetimes, researchers have determined. Hookworms weren’t then and still aren’t typically found in the steppes of central Asia.