The new information pushes the presence of the bacterium Treponema pallidum back at least 3,000 years from what was previously believed. The 5,500-year-old remains of a middle-aged hunter-gatherer buried in Colombia carried a surprising passenger with them across the millennia: a previously unknown strain of Treponema pallidum, the cause of syphilis. The team of researchers behind the discovery originally intended to analyze the remains to study human populations. “These findings open new questions about the timing, routes, and drivers of treponemal spread, and on the longstanding interplay among Treponema pallidum, human hosts, and the broader socioecological landscapes in which these diseases have evolved, persisted, and spread to affect human populations,” the authors wrote. Related Story Scientists Discovered How to Wipe Out TuberculosisPut simply, it redefines how old syphilis and other related diseases really are.