A critical review of anthropological studies on skeletons from European plague pits of different epochs

Abstract

In historical times, plague epidemics intermittently ravaged Europe for more than 1,400 years, and still represent a threat in many countries all over the world. A debate is ongoing about the past plague, if it killed randomly in a population or discriminated among persons on the basis of their biological features. To address questions of plague lethality, we reviewed a large number of anthropological studies published in the last twenty years on victims of the past pestilences in Europe. In particular, we focused on data concerning demography (age at death and sex determination), and health status (skeletal biomarkers). We applied to these data a model system based on Multiple Linear Regression, which aimed to discern among possible predictors of sex-selective plague lethality in entire populations, in different periods and regions. Based on available data, we lack evidence for general trends of association between biological features. Differences in sex ratio are more likely due to the original population compositions or to distinct cultural behaviours of the two genders. We concluded that generalizations on biological evidence are not feasible for ancient plagues if we exclude that the infection possibly killed primarily persons between 5–10 and 20–35 years of age.

Mortality and demographic recovery in early post-black death epidemics: Role of recent emigrants in medieval Dijon

“…Our registers provide no information about age that was reported to influence mortality during historic plague epidemics [22,[35][36][37]. We thus searched for additional determinants of excess epidemic mortality among the vulnerable population of recently registered heads of household.…”

“…To our knowledge, the interaction of frailty factors, although widely accepted in the case of present-day infection outbreaks [25], has not been quantified in historical epidemics. In addition, the weight of population movement should be considered among the cultural aspects that may influence plague mortality in historical contexts [36].…”

A forensic evaluation of plague – a re-emerging infectious disease with biowarfare potential

“…Eventually, mass burials were resorted to because of the sheer numbers of dead involved (Figure 3). 9 Plague reached the village of Eyam in the Derbyshire Dales, UK in 1665 when a flea-infested bundle of cloth from London was delivered to the local tailor. Over the next 14 months, 260 villagers out of a total population of 350 succumbed to the disease (Figure 4).…”

Bioarchaeology of Past Epidemic- and Famine-Related Mass Burials with Respect to Recent Findings from the Czech Republic

“…Poorly preserved skeletons, systematic underestimation of old individuals, or circumstances affecting skeletal aging, are some of the factors that complicate the estimation of age at death of adults (Cave, Oxenham, 2016). Furthermore, inconsistency in the use of age-estimation methods causes problems when comparing burial grounds, or their apparent normal mortality (Bramanti et al, 2018). Nevertheless, by combining methods from social and biological sciences in the study of historical mass graves, we can more thoroughly interpret the information held in the bones and, thanks to this transdisciplinary approach, better reconstruct daily life in times of catastrophes.…”

“…These are valuable population samples dated to short periods, and thus offer a huge amount of information crucial to bioarchaeological research. Digitalized models of selected bones from the Kutná Hora-Sedlec burial ground have already been used in a pilot study of human tibial curvature, through which we have acquired data on the lower limb loading at this time (Brzobohatá et al, 2019). During both crises, burial procedures accelerated to a degree, while cultural filters of burial treatment disappeared and could not have deformed the composition of the resultant funerary deposit.…”