‘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.
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.
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.
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