Astonishing research has shown that a virus still affecting people today has been around for thousands of years.
Researchers tested human bones from the Bronze Age, and found that 12 skeletons contained the hepatitis B genome.
The hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a leading cause of human hepatitis, with the The World Health Organization (WHO) estimating that 254 million people were living with chronic hep B infection in 2022 - so understanding it is vitally important.
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That was the spirit behind the research published back in 2018, which confirmed that hepatitis is the oldest virus we've yet been able to find proof of.
The genetic scientists took DNA samples from a wide array of skeletons to properly establish the virus' age.
A dozen of these skeletons had HBV genomes present in them, demonstrating not just that the virus existed thousands of years ago, but that it closely resembled the modern virus at that point already.
The oldest of the skeletons exhibiting the virus was 4,500 years old. That human skeleton was from the so-called ancient 'Beaker Bell' culture in Osterhofen, Germany, which takes its name from the bell-shaped pottery cups they left behind.
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The gap between this and our previous understanding of viral ages is huge, too - before this research, we had never found a virus older than 450 years old.
This is just what has been confirmed so far, too - researchers believe the virus could be unfathomably older than even this, according to some theories.
Lilly Yuen, a senior medical scientist at the Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory, has published research indicating that HBV was found in ancient bird DNA - which means the virus could in fact have been around for millions, not thousands of years.
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There's a reason why looking at the history of viruses could be so useful. In the same way that we need to learn more about distant planets to understand the basics of astrophysics, establishing more about the history and longevity of viruses like hepatitis can be vital in helping us to fight them.
Curing and eradicating hepatitis entirely might seem a distant goal at the moment, but discoveries like this are all part of the journey toward a cure and that moment where the condition is a thing of the past - even after thousands of years blighting humanity.