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Plague pit

A plague pit is a mass grave excavated for the rapid interment of human or animal corpses during epidemics when conventional burial capacities are exceeded, most notably associated with outbreaks of bubonic plague such as the Black Death.^[1] These emergency burial sites emerged prominently in Europe during the 14th century, as the Black Death—caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis—swept through populations, killing an estimated 30–60% of Europe's inhabitants between 1347 and 1351.^[2] In England, the plague arrived in 1348, reaching London by November and peaking in spring 1349, prompting authorities like Bishop Ralph Stratford to establish dedicated cemeteries such as East Smithfield to handle the influx of bodies.^[3] Similar pits were reused or newly dug during later epidemics, including the Great Plague of London in 1665–1666, which claimed an estimated 100,000 lives in the city—about 20–25% of its population—and led to hasty burials in fields, churchyards, and open spaces when church graveyards overflowed.^[4] Plague pits were typically large, shallow trenches where bodies were interred without coffins, often layered with quicklime to help reduce the spread of disease, although it actually delays decomposition.^[5] Notable locations include sites in London such as Charterhouse Square and East Smithfield, as well as discoveries across Europe, such as eight pits containing around 1,000 skeletons from the 17th century in Germany.^[6]^[7] Archaeological excavations, such as at East Smithfield—unearthed in the 1980s—have yielded over 600 skeletons from mass trenches, confirming plague victims through contextual evidence and DNA studies detecting Y. pestis in dental pulp.^[8] However, not all plague burials were indiscriminate mass graves; research indicates that in some regions, victims received individual or small-group interments with care, challenging romanticized notions of chaotic disposal.^[9] Today, plague pits serve as vital sources for bioarchaeological analysis, revealing demographic impacts, health conditions, and the social responses to pandemics, though challenges like poor skeletal preservation and diagnostic limitations persist.^[3]

Definition and Characteristics

Definition

A plague pit is a mass grave specifically constructed for the rapid interment of victims during outbreaks of infectious diseases such as the bubonic plague, aimed at disposing of large numbers of bodies when traditional burial practices became overwhelmed.^[6]^[10] These sites were employed to facilitate quick burials, often without individual coffins, markers, or religious ceremonies, distinguishing them from standard funerary customs that emphasized personal graves and rites.^[6] The primary purpose of plague pits was to contain the spread of contagion by isolating the deceased from the living population and the environment, in line with contemporary quarantine measures that sought to limit disease transmission through prompt disposal of remains.^[10] Historical practices included layering bodies with quicklime or soil to act as a disinfectant, believed to neutralize pathogens, reduce odors, and deter scavenging animals, thereby preventing further infection risks.^[11]^[12] Basic features of plague pits varied by urgency and location but typically involved excavations that could be shallow or up to six feet deep, typically located in churchyards, fields, or newly established emergency cemeteries outside or on the periphery of main settlements, many of which were consecrated.^[10]^[6] Unlike mass graves resulting from warfare, famines, or natural disasters, plague pits were uniquely associated with epidemic responses to infectious outbreaks, prioritizing public health over commemoration.^[10]

Construction Methods

Plague pits were primarily constructed through manual labor, employing basic tools like spades, picks, and shovels to excavate earth in areas suitable for rapid burial. These excavations typically took the form of rectangular trenches or pits, designed for efficiency during outbreaks; for instance, at the East Smithfield site in London, archaeologists uncovered two mass burial trenches and one mass burial pit, densely packed to handle the surge in deaths.^[3] Dimensions varied by location and urgency, but examples from medieval sites indicate lengths of around 9-10 meters, widths of 2 meters, and depths up to 1.7 meters, allowing for layered interments without excessive time for digging.^[13] Once excavated, bodies were arranged within the pits in organized layers to optimize space, often stacked in rows up to five individuals deep, with limbs sometimes intertwined due to the volume of remains. This "cordwood" or tiered placement facilitated quick deposition, followed by immediate infilling with soil to deter scavenging animals and limit exposure.^[3] In later plague episodes, such as the 1630-1632 outbreak in Imola, Italy, multiple layers of lime were incorporated between skeletons to mask odors, hasten decomposition, and act as a perceived disinfectant, though such additives were less evidenced in 14th-century Black Death burials.^[14] Construction methods evolved with outbreak intensity and locale, beginning with individual shallow graves (often less than 1 meter deep) in early phases when mortality was manageable, shifting to large communal pits as deaths escalated. Urban pits were sited outside city walls or in emergency cemeteries to avoid groundwater contamination, while rural examples utilized abbey grounds or open fields for accessibility.^[3] The overriding challenge was the necessity for haste amid peak mortality rates—such as 200 burials per day in London during 1349—resulting in non-standard features like irregular body orientations and incomplete layering, prioritizing volume over ritual.^[15]

Historical Development

Origins in Ancient Times

The earliest recorded instances of mass burial practices akin to plague pits emerged during the Plague of Athens in 430 BCE, amid the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta. Contemporary historian Thucydides detailed how the epidemic overwhelmed the city's resources, leading to the abandonment of traditional funerary rites as corpses accumulated in streets, homes, and temples.^[16] Overburdened survivors resorted to hasty interments in any available spaces, including improvised pits and pyres, often without proper ceremonies or isolation from the living. Archaeological evidence supports this account, with a mass grave containing over 150 individuals discovered in the Kerameikos cemetery outside Athens' city walls, dated to circa 430 BCE and exhibiting signs of rapid, unceremonious deposition consistent with epidemic conditions.^[17] In the Ancient Near East, cultural precursors to such practices appeared in communal graves for victims of diseases or crises, predating the bubonic plague but serving similar functions of rapid disposal to contain contagion and manage overwhelming mortality. Egyptian archaeological sites from the Middle Kingdom (circa 2055–1650 BCE) reveal multiple burials in non-elite contexts, where groups of individuals were interred together in shallow pits or reused tombs without individual mummification.^[18] Similarly, Mesopotamian records from the second and first millennia BCE describe epidemics attributed to divine wrath, with textual evidence from cuneiform tablets indicating collective burial rites for the afflicted to appease gods and prevent further spread, as seen in rituals documented in the šumma ālu omens.^[19] These practices emphasized isolation of the diseased dead from sacred or communal spaces, prioritizing societal survival over elaborate memorials.^[20] Roman responses during the Antonine Plague (165–180 CE), a devastating outbreak likely caused by smallpox that ravaged the empire, echoed these earlier methods with evidence of hasty mass interments. In Ostia, the port of Rome, excavations have uncovered clustered burials from this period showing irregular layering and minimal grave goods, indicative of emergency disposal amid high mortality rates estimated at 5–10% of the population.^[21] In Roman Egypt, papyri and skeletal remains from sites like Fayum depict accelerated burial practices for plague victims, including communal pits to segregate bodies and mitigate miasma fears, as described by physician Galen who witnessed the epidemic's toll.^[22] These ancient strategies of isolating and collectively burying epidemic dead laid foundational precedents for medieval European practices, influencing the rapid establishment of dedicated plague pits during later pandemics by perpetuating the dual emphasis on containment and efficiency in the face of mass death.^[23] The Greco-Roman tradition of crisis-driven funerary adaptations, as analyzed in comparative archaeological studies, informed the evolution of burial norms that prioritized public health over ritual, bridging antiquity to the more formalized responses seen in the Middle Ages.^[24]

Evolution During Medieval Pandemics

The practice of using plague pits emerged prominently during the Black Death of 1347-1351, as traditional churchyards in European cities rapidly filled beyond capacity due to the unprecedented mortality rates. Civic authorities and church officials, overwhelmed by the crisis, issued emergency orders for mass burials outside consecrated grounds to expedite disposal and maintain public order; for instance, in Florence, officials arranged for hasty interments in open pits within and beyond city limits when daily corpse hauls exceeded available space.^[25]^[26] From the 15th to 17th centuries, plague burial regulations evolved into more formalized ordinances across Europe, reflecting growing institutional efforts to standardize responses to recurrent outbreaks. In late medieval Valencia, city councils enacted specific measures during epidemics, such as designating peripheral burial zones and restricting gatherings around the dead to curb further spread, marking a shift toward proactive civic governance over ad hoc church-led efforts.^[27] By the 17th century in London, the 1665 Plague Orders required nighttime burials without ceremonies, pits at minimum six feet deep, and post-outbreak covering with fresh earth to seal remains, illustrating a progression toward regulated, large-scale emergency infrastructure.^[10] The scale of plague pits expanded significantly over this period, transitioning from localized rural excavations to expansive urban facilities capable of accommodating thousands amid surging urban death tolls. Early Black Death responses involved modest communal graves in countryside settings, but by the mid-14th century, sites like London's East Smithfield cemetery—established by royal decree—demonstrated this escalation, with estimates of around 2,400 burials in organized rows to manage metropolitan overflow efficiently.^[28]^[29] These developments were heavily influenced by prevailing miasma theories, which posited that diseases arose from corrupted air emanating from decaying matter, prompting authorities to site pits away from inhabited areas to mitigate perceived airborne contagion. Regulations emphasizing depth and covering, as seen in ordinances from Pistoia requiring graves at least two-and-a-half armlengths deep to contain odors, directly stemmed from this belief in preventing miasmatic vapors from endangering the living.^[30]^[31]

Notable Historical Sites

Sites from the Black Death

During the Black Death pandemic of 1347–1351, plague pits emerged as critical responses to the unprecedented death toll across Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, with sites established hastily to accommodate mass burials amid collapsing social structures. In London, the East Smithfield emergency cemetery, arranged under King Edward III in 1348, became one of the largest known plague pits, estimated to have interred around 2,400 bodies during the 1349 peak. Archaeological excavations by the Museum of London Archaeology uncovered over 400 individuals in mass trenches, revealing hasty, unceremonious burials without coffins or grave goods, reflecting the desperation of the crisis.^[32]^[6] Further afield in Italy, Venice faced the plague's arrival in January 1348 via trading ships, prompting the use of mass graves on peripheral islands such as the Lazzaretto and within the city near Rialto to isolate and dispose of the dead. Historical records indicate that bodies were interred in shallow pits to prevent further contamination, contributing to Venice's early experiments with quarantine measures. The scale was immense, with chroniclers noting that over 100,000 perished in the city and its territories, many consigned to these communal graves amid overflowing churchyards.^[33]^[34] The pandemic's westward trajectory originated in Central Asia around 1338–1346, carried along trade routes to the Black Sea and beyond, striking Constantinople (modern Istanbul) by May 1347 and decimating the Byzantine Empire's capital. Contemporary Byzantine accounts, such as those by historian Nikephoros Gregoras, describe mass pits excavated outside city walls to bury the swollen dead, with estimates of daily fatalities reaching thousands and total losses approaching half the population. These pits, often filled to overflowing, symbolized the empire's vulnerability as the plague radiated to Europe via Genoese vessels fleeing the siege of Caffa.^[35]^[36] Eyewitness documentation from the era vividly captures the horror of these sites, particularly in Florence, where author Giovanni Boccaccio detailed the overcrowding in his Decameron (ca. 1353). He recounted how authorities dug vast pits in churchyards and beyond the walls, stacking corpses layer upon layer like merchandise in a ship's hold, covering them thinly with soil only when no space remained; this method arose from the impossibility of individual rites amid the deluge of bodies, with gravediggers working day and night to keep pace. Boccaccio's narrative underscores the breakdown of burial norms, as even the pits proved insufficient, leading to abandoned corpses in streets.^[37] The proliferation and scale of these plague pits mirrored the Black Death's staggering demographic toll, with urban mortality rates commonly ranging from 30% to 60% in hard-hit centers like Florence (up to 60%), London (around 50%), and Venice (over 40%), driving the need for such improvised mass interments. These figures, derived from tax records, chronicles, and skeletal analyses, highlight how pits not only managed immediate disposal but also marked the era's profound population collapse, estimated at 40% across Europe overall.^[38]^[39]

Sites from Later Outbreaks

Following the Black Death, plague outbreaks continued to prompt the use of mass burial pits in Europe and beyond, adapting earlier practices to urban crises while incorporating royal or colonial oversight to manage public panic and disease spread. During the Great Plague of London in 1665-1666, which killed an estimated 100,000 people, authorities established emergency pits for rapid interment to contain infection. One notable site was the "Great Pit" near Aldgate, a deep mass grave documented in contemporary accounts and later confirmed through archaeological excavations during the Crossrail project at Liverpool Street station, where over 20 skeletons from the period were uncovered, showing hasty burials without coffins. King Charles II, who fled the city in July 1665, issued royal orders mandating that searchers collect bodies at night and transport them to designated pits outside churchyards, with infected houses locked for 28 days to enforce isolation. These measures, enforced by the Lord Mayor, marked a shift toward centralized control, though enforcement varied due to the chaos. In the 18th century, similar pits emerged during the Great Plague of Marseille in 1720-1722, which devastated the port city and surrounding Provence, claiming nearly half of Marseille's 100,000 residents. Archaeological digs have revealed multiple mass graves in the region, including the Le Délos cemetery in nearby Martigues, where ordered rows of skeletons without violence indicators were dated to the outbreak via historical records and paleomicrobiological analysis confirming Yersinia pestis. These sites, often located on city outskirts, reflected French authorities' efforts to segregate the dead, with bodies buried in lime to hasten decomposition, though overflows led to undocumented shallow pits amid the trade blockade that isolated the city. The Third Plague Pandemic, which originated in 1855 in China but hit colonial India severely from 1896, saw mass burial and cremation sites in Bombay (now Mumbai), where the outbreak killed thousands in overcrowded slums. British colonial reports documented 24,812 burials and 22,818 cremations in 1897 alone, with emergency pits and pyres on city fringes to curb spread, often overriding local Hindu and Muslim rites amid house-to-house searches. In Bombay, sites near Mandvi port handled initial victims, evolving into formalized segregation camps under the Plague Committee, which vaccinated over 30,000 using Waldemar Haffkine's 1897 anti-plague serum to reduce mortality. By the mid-19th century, advances in vaccination and sanitation diminished the need for such pits, shifting toward individual burials in established cemeteries as plague incidence fell in Europe and controlled outbreaks in colonies. Haffkine's vaccine, tested during the Bombay epidemic, contributed to declining death rates—peaking at over 1 million in India by 1907 but tapering with widespread inoculation—allowing normalized funerary practices over mass disposals. Public health reforms, including quarantine and hygiene, further obviated emergency pits by the late 1800s, though sporadic use persisted in remote areas until the pandemic waned.

Modern Discoveries and Research

Archaeological Excavations

Archaeological excavations of plague pits have significantly advanced understanding of medieval pandemics since the late 20th century, often prompted by urban development projects that uncover mass burial sites. These digs employ systematic methods to document burial practices and recover skeletal remains, filling historical gaps where records are scarce or absent. Key projects from the 1980s and 1990s, such as the East Smithfield excavation in London, revealed emergency burial strategies during the Black Death, including layered interments of over 200 individuals in mass trenches without coffins in many cases, alongside artifacts like shroud pins and pottery that indicate hasty, unceremonious disposal.^[3]^[29] Modern techniques in plague pit archaeology integrate non-invasive geophysical surveys with detailed osteological examinations to minimize disturbance to remains while maximizing data recovery. Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) has been instrumental in detecting subsurface anomalies suggestive of mass graves, as demonstrated in surveys of potential Black Death sites where it identified clustered burial features before excavation. Osteological analysis focuses on skeletal indicators such as age-at-death patterns, dental health, and rare pathological lesions—though plague itself leaves few diagnostic marks—allowing researchers to infer demographic impacts and rule out other causes of death. These methods were applied in the East Smithfield project, where analysis showed a high proportion of young adults and children among the victims, reflecting the epidemic's broad toll.^[40]^[41] Global efforts extend beyond Britain, with excavations in continental Europe confirming plague through integrated archaeological and genetic approaches. In Germany, recent digs in Nuremberg uncovered eight 17th-century plague pits containing over 1,500 skeletons during construction work, featuring irregular mass graves with mixed-age remains that align with historical outbreak records from 1632–1633. In France, the 1980s excavation of a Montpellier plague cemetery yielded remains from multiple outbreaks, where subsequent DNA analysis detected Yersinia pestis, validating the site's association with historical pandemics and providing early molecular evidence of the pathogen's persistence. These international projects highlight variations in burial organization, from organized trenches in urban settings to scattered rural pits.^[42]^[43] Excavations face significant challenges, including ethical concerns over disturbing human remains and urban development pressures that can halt or complicate digs. Handling plague pit skeletons raises issues of respect for the deceased, descendant rights, and the need for reburial post-analysis, as emphasized in bioarchaeological guidelines that prioritize cultural sensitivity and informed consent where possible. Development projects, such as London's Crossrail works that encountered 14th-century burials, often lead to time-sensitive rescues, balancing preservation with infrastructure demands and risking incomplete documentation if not managed collaboratively.^[44]^[45]

Scientific Analysis and Preservation

Scientific analysis of plague pit remains has advanced significantly through ancient DNA (aDNA) sequencing, enabling the identification of Yersinia pestis, the bacterium responsible for bubonic plague, in skeletal materials such as teeth and bones. Researchers extract DNA from dental pulp or bone samples, which preserve genetic material due to their dense structure, and amplify specific Y. pestis sequences using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) techniques. For instance, aDNA from teeth in East Smithfield plague pit in London confirmed the presence of Y. pestis strains linked to the 14th-century Black Death, distinguishing them from later outbreaks.^[46] Similarly, genomic analysis of remains from multiple European plague pits revealed distinct Y. pestis clones, supporting the pathogen's role in medieval pandemics and its evolutionary path from Yersinia pseudotuberculosis.^[47] Isotope analysis provides demographic insights into plague victims, revealing details about their diets, ages at death, and possible migrations. Stable isotope ratios of strontium (Sr) and oxygen (O) in tooth enamel indicate childhood residency and mobility, while carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) isotopes from bone collagen reflect dietary protein sources and trophic levels. In the East Smithfield pit, such analyses identified migrants from diverse regions, including areas outside London with distinct isotopic signatures, suggesting the Black Death affected a heterogeneous population of locals and newcomers.^[48] These methods highlight nutritional vulnerabilities, as lower nitrogen isotope values in some victims point to protein-poor diets that may have exacerbated plague susceptibility.^[49] A 2025 study using carbon and nitrogen isotopes on East Smithfield remains further linked childhood malnutrition—detected through elevated isotope ratios indicating nutritional stress—to higher short-term survival rates against the plague up to around age 30, though with potential long-term health costs.^[49] Preservation efforts for plague pit remains emphasize ethical handling, scientific retention, and legal safeguards to ensure accessibility for future study. Reburial protocols, guided by assessments of material condition and research potential, involve using protective containers with materials like lime or silica gel to prevent degradation, though many remains are retained in controlled museum environments rather than reinterred. The Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA) curates skeletons from sites like East Smithfield, displaying select examples in exhibits to educate on medieval health while adhering to dignity standards.^[3] Under UK heritage laws, such as the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 and the Human Tissue Act 2004, excavated human remains over 100 years old are exempt from standard burial regulations, allowing retention for research but requiring consultation with advisory panels like the Department for Culture, Media and Sport's Retention Panel. Ongoing research utilizes radiocarbon dating to refine outbreak timelines, calibrating bone or tooth samples against known historical events to verify burial dates. Accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) provides precise dates, often combined with Bayesian statistical modeling to account for multiple burials in a single pit. For example, dating of remains from Black Death sites has narrowed the London outbreak window to 1348–1349 CE, distinguishing it from earlier or later epidemics.^[47] This technique continues to challenge assumptions about the timing and spread of medieval pandemics.

Cultural and Contemporary Relevance

Depictions in Art and Literature

In medieval art, plague pits were often depicted in illuminated manuscripts as stark symbols of divine retribution and the indiscriminate horror of mass mortality during the Black Death. A prominent example is the miniature from the Chronicles of Gilles Li Muisis (c. 1353), attributed to the artist Pierart dou Tielt, which illustrates citizens of Tournai, Belgium, burying plague victims in a communal pit amid overflowing coffins and a lone gravedigger overwhelmed by the task.^[50] This artwork captures the chaos of emergency mass burials, reflecting contemporary fears of God's wrathful punishment for societal sins, as the plague was widely interpreted as apocalyptic judgment.^[51] Such illustrations in chronicles and religious texts emphasized the anonymity of the dead, piled without ceremony, underscoring the erasure of individual identity in the face of overwhelming death. In literature, plague pits served as vivid metaphors for urban terror and human vulnerability, particularly in accounts of the Great Plague of London. Daniel Defoe's A Journal of the Plague Year (1722), presented as a firsthand narrative, provides one of the most harrowing descriptions, detailing the "great pit" in Aldgate where bodies were unceremoniously dumped at night, layered like cordwood, with the narrator witnessing the gruesome spectacle under lantern light.^[52] Defoe's portrayal highlights the pits' role in concealing the scale of devastation—estimated at over 1,000 burials in some sites—to prevent public panic, while evoking the anonymity and profane horror of commodified corpses carted away by "dead-men" watchmen.^[53] This work influenced later interpretations, framing pits not only as practical necessities but as emblems of societal breakdown and the erasure of personal dignity in epidemic crises.^[54] Modern depictions in literature and film continue to employ plague pits as motifs for mortality's inescapability and collective trauma, often blending historical accuracy with speculative dread. Similarly, Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Masque of the Red Death" (1842), adapted into Roger Corman's 1964 film starring Vincent Price, uses the encroaching "Red Death" plague as an allegory for inevitable doom, with implicit references to mass suffering evoking pit-like anonymity in the prince's futile isolation from the afflicted masses.^[55] These works perpetuate the pits' symbolism as harbingers of egalitarian death, stripping away illusions of immunity and confronting audiences with the horror of indiscriminate loss.^[56]

Implications for Public Health and Memory

The analysis of plague pits has provided valuable insights into the transmission dynamics of Yersinia pestis, revealing patterns of rapid communal burial that likely accelerated spread in densely populated areas during historical outbreaks.^[41] These bioarcheological findings underscore the role of social behaviors, such as hasty mass interments without isolation, in amplifying epidemics, informing modern epidemiological models on the importance of timely and controlled fatality management.^[41] During the COVID-19 pandemic, historical precedents from plague pits influenced contingency planning for mass burials, with authorities drawing on lessons about public panic and logistical challenges to develop strategies like temporary refrigerated facilities and designated sites to prevent secondary transmission risks.^[57] In urban planning, known plague pit locations necessitate careful site assessments to mitigate potential health hazards from disturbing ancient remains, including the theoretical risk of releasing dormant pathogens, though viable Yersinia pestis is unlikely after centuries.^[58] The Crossrail project in London exemplifies this, where excavations at Charterhouse Square uncovered Black Death victims in 2013, prompting archaeologists to rebury remains respectfully while integrating findings into project timelines to avoid disruptions and ensure biosafety protocols.^[59] Modern memorialization of plague pits serves to educate the public on pandemic history, fostering resilience through awareness of past vulnerabilities. In London, plaques and interpretive signs at sites like the Bedlam burial ground highlight the scale of 17th-century losses, while museums such as the Museum of London display artifacts from pit excavations to contextualize societal impacts.^[60] Recent discoveries, such as the 2024 unearthing of eight plague pits in Nuremberg, Germany, containing around 1,000 skeletons from the 17th century, have further engaged public interest in historical pandemics and their lessons for contemporary society.^[42] These commemorations, including the interactive mapping of pits across the city, promote collective memory and underscore the human cost of epidemics.^[6] Contemporary debates on plague pits increasingly focus on climate change threats, such as coastal erosion and flooding, which could expose or damage burial sites and necessitate proactive re-excavation or preservation efforts.^[61] For instance, rising sea levels and extreme weather have already impacted historical cemeteries globally, raising concerns about the integrity of plague remains and the ethical dilemmas of salvage archaeology in vulnerable urban areas.^[62]

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Insights from Bioarcheological Analyses of Epidemic Cemeteries
Jul 2, 2020 · This paper summarizes bioarcheological research on plague, primarily investigations of the Black Death in London (1349–50), emphasizing what anthropology ...
[38]
Mass grave with 1,000 skeletons found in Germany - CNN
Mar 6, 2024 · Roughly 1,000 skeletons of plague victims have so far been found in mass graves in the center of the city of Nuremberg, which experts believe ...
[39]
Case reopens on Black Death cause | New Scientist
Sep 11, 2003 · What is more, nearly all the French samples tested positive – a suspiciously high survival rate for DNA in Montpellier's warm climate, Cooper ...
[40]
Ethical issues in paleopathological and anthropological research ...
Ethical issues involve the different study phases of human remains: archaeological excavation, anthropological analysis and, finally, museum display.
[41]
London rail excavation unearths suspected 'plague pit' - CNN
Mar 16, 2013 · Since then, the bones have lain undisturbed just 2.5 meters (8 feet) below the surface in one of the few areas of the central London ...
[42]
Distinct Clones of Yersinia pestis Caused the Black Death
aDNA analyses were performed with dental pulp or bone samples from 76 human skeletons excavated from putative plague pits in England, France, Germany, Italy, ...
[43]
Distinct Clones of Yersinia pestis Caused the Black Death - PMC
Oct 7, 2010 · The Hereford plague pits have been AMS radiocarbon dated to calAD 1335±54 and our specimens can therefore be attributed to one of these three ...Missing: construction | Show results with:construction
[44]
identification of migrant individuals in a 14th century black death ...
Adults (n = 30) from the East Smithfield site were sampled for strontium and oxygen stable isotope analyses of tooth enamel. ... Plague / history*; Strontium ...Missing: pit diet
[45]
Multidisciplinary investigations of the diets of two post-medieval ...
Aug 16, 2019 · This paper presents the first multi-tissue study of diet in post-medieval London using both the stable light isotope analysis of carbon and nitrogen and ...
[46]
The source of the Black Death in fourteenth-century central Eurasia
Jun 15, 2022 · To explore possible evidence associated with the early history of the second plague pandemic, we investigated the cemeteries of Kara-Djigach and ...Missing: Influence practices
[47]
Citizens of Tournai Bury Their Dead - World History Encyclopedia
Mar 22, 2020 · Miniature from a folio of the Antiquitates Flandriae, depicting the citizens of Tournai, Belgium burying those who died of plague during the Black Death.
[48]
Plague in Art: 10 Unsettling Paintings of Pandemics
Nov 18, 2024 · The pandemics are still a threat to the modern world. Take a look at these 10 paintings and see how famous artists presented plague in art.
[49]
A Journal of the Plague Year, by Daniel Defoe - Project Gutenberg
There was a strict order to prevent people coming to those pits, and that was only to prevent infection. ... description of the miserable condition of the ...
[50]
A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe | Research Starters
A Journal of the Plague Year is a significant work by Daniel Defoe, published in 1722, which explores the devastating impact of the bubonic plague on London ...
[51]
A Journal of the Plague Year - PMC - NIH
A Journal of the Plague Year is a work of fiction masquerading as a work of fact. It reads as if it were an unembellished account of the personal experiences ...Missing: pits | Show results with:pits
[52]
Masque of the Red Death, The | Gothic horror, Vincent Price, Corman
He offers his castle to nobles as a refuge from the plague and kills anyone he suspects of carrying the disease. Prospero's depraved nature is established ...
[53]
Art of the Black Death: Medieval Artists Facing a Pandemic (9 ...
Nov 29, 2021 · How Did Medieval artists depict the Black Death and how did art during this terrible pandemic look like?Missing: Nuremberg | Show results with:Nuremberg
[54]
COVID- 19, Cemeteries and Fears of Collective Burial
Apr 15, 2020 · Western fears of mass burial go back to the plague pits of Europe. The multiple waves of bubonic plague that swept over European cities ...Missing: lessons transmission analysis
[55]
Bioarchaeological insights into the last plague of Imola (1630–1632)
Nov 15, 2021 · The plague of 1630–1632 was one of the deadliest plague epidemics to ever hit Northern Italy, and for many of the affected regions, ...Missing: transmission | Show results with:transmission
[56]
Black Death skeletons unearthed by Crossrail project - BBC News
Mar 30, 2014 · Skeletons unearthed by London's Crossrail are victims of the Black Death and may be part of a mass grave, forensic tests reveal.<|control11|><|separator|>
[57]
Crossrail programme highlight: how do you analyse 3300 skeletons?
The dig uncovered more than 3,300 human skeletons, the largest collection of 16th to 18th-century human remains ever found in London. In advance of the dig, a ...Missing: urban | Show results with:urban
[58]
The impact of climate change on archaeological sites
Jul 1, 2025 · Thawing permafrost, coastal erosion, flooding, and droughts are some of the phenomena that threaten potentially millions of ancient sites around the world.
[59]
Climate change poses increasing threat for dead as cemeteries flood
Sep 16, 2023 · Dozens of graveyards in at least 21 states and 15 countries have seen increased flooding, erosion and other climate-related weather disasters over the past ...