DNA analysis from a Turkish cave has unveiled evidence that prehistoric people used charcoal-based remedies to treat digestive ailments as much as 5,000 years ago, while simultaneously revealing that antibiotic resistance genes existed millennia before modern pharmaceuticals. This groundbreaking discovery from İnönü Cave in Turkey’s Zonguldak province challenges our understanding of both ancient medicine and microbial evolution.
The research, recently published in PLoS ONE, represents one of Turkey’s first large-scale ancient DNA soil studies. Using cutting-edge metagenomic sequencing, scientists from Zonguldak Bülent Ecevit University have reconstructed 5,000 years of microbial communities, revealing fascinating insights into prehistoric healthcare practices.
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