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We present an individual biography of an adult woman from the 3rd millennium BC from the Eastern Baltic. Being a representative of a Corded Ware Culture she is considered one of the first documented cases carrying the early plague bacteria, Yersina pestis. The appearance, life, and death of this individual from Sope, NE Estonia, is provided through an application of a range of osteological and biomolecular analyses. The mortuary practices that accompanied her death are revealed through post-excavation archaeothanatological analysis. The position of bones within the grave indicates that her remains were handled differently from the known contemporary Corded Ware Culture inhumations. The mortuary treatment consisted of at least two phases that resulted in an imitation of a ‘proper’ flexed burial. Probably, the reburial of bones was undertaken during the Corded Ware period.

Around 2900–2300 cal BCE, mobile stockbreeders introduced the Neolithic Corded Ware culture (CWC) into the Eastern Baltic. Here, a Central or Northern European Neolithic economy and ideology took hold despite differences in burial practices. Although around 90 CWC graves are known in the region their contents have not been intensively studied. Here, we present new AMS radiocarbon (14C) measurements and carbon and nitrogen stable isotope data obtained on human bone collagen, molecular and isotopic data obtained from ceramic beakers, and user-wear data of flint and bone tools from several CWC graves, Benaičiai, Biržai, Krasnasieĺski, Dakudava 5, and Drazdy 12, in Lithuania and Western Belarus. The bone collagen δ13C and δ15N stable isotope data are rather homogenous and demonstrate that the majority of consumed protein was derived from terrestrial resources. Organic residue analysis of two CWC beakers yielded lipids consistent with ruminant carcass and dairy fats, whilst use-wear analyses indicates that bone pins, flint blades and axes were used as grinders, functional tools or had been carefully renewed before deposition respectively.