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  • Black Death burials uncovered

    ‘Black Death’ skeletons found under rail site
    AFP/London
    March 15, 2012



    Workers building a new railway in London have unearthed 13 skeletons thought to be victims of the Black Death plague that swept through Europe in the 14th century, archaeologists said yesterday.

    The remains were dug up at Charterhouse Square in central London during excavation work for the city’s £15bn Crossrail project.

    Archaeologists believe the site could be the location of a plague cemetery described in medieval records, where up to 50,000 victims of the Black Death were buried. The plague wiped out a third of Europe’s population between 1348 and 1353. “The depth of burials, the pottery found with the skeletons and the way the skeletons have been set out all point towards this being part of the 14th century emergency burial ground,” said Jay Carver, Crossrail’s lead archaeologist. “This is a highly significant discovery and at the moment we are left with many questions that we hope to answer. We will be undertaking scientific tests on the skeletons over the coming months to establish their cause of death, whether they were plague victims from the 14th century or later London residents, how old they were and perhaps evidence of who they were.”

    Records refer to a burial ground in London’s Farringdon area, where Charterhouse Square is located, that opened in 1348. The 13 skeletons were found over the last two weeks, laid out in two rows several feet below road level. They will be taken to the Museum of London Archaeology for laboratory testing and possibly carbon-dating to try to establish their burial dates. Scientists are hoping to use the skeletons to map the DNA signature of the plague, in research they hope could help combat modern diseases.
    Source: Gulf-Times

    Although the virus is thought to be different, the Black Plague is certainly reminiscent of 'The Plague of Justinian' which occurred in the mid-sixth century and was the first mass-epidemic ever reported. The plague decimated Alexandria, Egypt before arriving in Constantinople on grain ships. The virus carrier is thought to be rats and the transmitter flea-bite. The mortality rate was horrendous and contemporary Byzantine historians estimated that 10,000 people were dying in the city every day. At first they stacked the bodies like cord-wood in open spaces, but soon ran out of room and then began throwing corpses in the river. Striking in tandem with the buboes was starvation, as most peasant farmers in the countryside had perished from the plague. It is thought that this epidemic killed 100 million worldwide. Strangely enough, although Emperor Justinian himself caught the plague, he survived. The ravages however, did leave permanent scars on his face and body and he also thereafter suffered a speech defect.
    Last edited by Minskaya; 16 Mar 13,, 16:06. Reason: syntax correction
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  • #2
    It must've been a horrifying experience for the undertakers who buried all these plague victims.
    "Draft beer, not people."

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    • #3
      One question, when they dug up the bodies, did they by any chance re-released the deadly virus or plague? Or has the disease died out?

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      • #4
        Originally posted by Blademaster View Post
        One question, when they dug up the bodies, did they by any chance re-released the deadly virus or plague? Or has the disease died out?
        It still exists but the high degree of immunity among those descended from the areas that were worst hit by it coupled with modern medicine mean it has little impact. IIRC about ten people a year die of it in the US.

        Qualifyer: I'm talking about bubonic plague types here.
        Last edited by Parihaka; 17 Mar 13,, 02:21.
        In the realm of spirit, seek clarity; in the material world, seek utility.

        Leibniz

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        • #5
          The plague was most likely bacterial. Unlikely bacteria would have lived so long and the best part, what bacteria might have survived(again highly unlikely) would not have been exposed to antibiotics and thus had not developed an immunity. We have bacteria today that make the plague look like a walk in the park.
          Removing a single turd from the cesspool doesn't make any difference.

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          • #6
            Originally posted by bonehead View Post
            The plague was most likely bacterial. Unlikely bacteria would have lived so long and the best part, what bacteria might have survived(again highly unlikely) would not have been exposed to antibiotics and thus had not developed an immunity. We have bacteria today that make the plague look like a walk in the park.
            The bacteria certainly wouldn't survive, but if they had there's no guarantee they wouldn't have resistance genes. Antibiotics are far older than humanity, and antibiotic resistance is similarly ancient. A paper came out last year looking at bacteria from a cave that had been isolated from the outside world for, IIRC, thousands of years, found multiple types of antibiotic resistance. Prevalence of antibiotic resistance has increased, however, due to our heavy usage. And of course novel variants have arisen in reaction to our development of novel antibiotics.
            I enjoy being wrong too much to change my mind.

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            • #7
              According to Nick Elsden of MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology), there is no longer any health risk from the plague which killed over a quarter of the British population in 1348. "It's not something that stays in the soil. You have to actually meet someone who has it in order to catch it." To underscore this point, none of the Crossrail archaeologists working on the burial excavations has become ill.
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              • #8
                its a very terrible to remove the buried once again and even after the knowledge of what is..virus underneath it..thought process itself is horryfying how they have buried and re removed the earth

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                • #9
                  When serving at RAF Mountbatten, workers extending a path, uncovered skeletons. It turn out that the base had been built on a plaque pit.

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