Beyond Plague Pits: Using Genetics to Identify Responses to Plague in Medieval Cambridgeshire

Cessford, Craig; Scheib, Christiana L.; Guellil, Meriam; Keller, Marcel; Alexander, Craig; Inskip, Sarah; Robb, John

doi:10.1017/eaa.2021.19

Cited by 20 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…Even during the Black Death, many plague victims were buried within parish cemeteries (Gummer, 2010; Kelly, 2005). While estimations of the proportion of plague victims buried within parish cemeteries indicate that plague mortality is unlikely to substantially influence mortality profiles (Cessford et al, 2021), further research evaluating demography in pre‐ and post‐plague medieval parish cemeteries is necessary to explore this further.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Black Death in Hereford, England: A demographic analysis of the Cathedral 14th‐century plague mass graves and associated parish cemetery

Franklin,

Mitchell,

Robb

2023

American Journal of Biological Anthropology

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ObjectivesThis study explores the paleoepidemiology of the Black Death (1348–52 AD) mass graves from Hereford, England, via osteological analysis. Hereford plague mortality is evaluated in the local context of the medieval city and examined alongside other Black Death burials.MethodsThe Hereford Cathedral site includes mass graves relating to the Black Death and a 12th‐16th century parish cemetery. In total, 177 adult skeletons were analyzed macroscopically: 73 from the mass graves and 104 from the parish cemetery. Skeletal age‐at‐death was assessed using transition analysis, and sex and stress markers were analyzed.ResultsThe age‐at‐death distributions for the mass graves and parish cemetery were significantly different (p = 0.0496). Within the mass graves, young adults (15–24 years) were substantially over‐represented, and mortality peaked at 25–34 years. From 35 years of age onwards, there was little variation in the mortality profiles for the mass graves and parish cemetery. Males and females had similar representation across burial types. Linear enamel hypoplasia was more prevalent within the mass graves (p = 0.0340) whereas cribra orbitalia and tibial periostitis were underrepresented.ConclusionsMortality within the Hereford mass graves peaked at a slightly older age than is seen within plague burials from London, but the overall profiles are similar. This demonstrates that young adults were disproportionately at risk of dying from plague compared with other age groups. Our findings regarding stress markers may indicate that enamel hypoplasia is more strongly associated with vulnerability to plague than cribra orbitalia or tibial periostitis.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Black Death in Hereford, England: A demographic analysis of the Cathedral 14th‐century plague mass graves and associated parish cemetery

Franklin,

Mitchell,

Robb

2023

American Journal of Biological Anthropology

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“…One individual from the cemetery tested positive for Yersinia pestis (F.355), the bacterium that causes plague. The strain identified was ‘potentially identical to other Black Death genomes’ (Spyrou et al 2019 , 3), indicating that this individual probably died of plague in 1349 (Cessford et al 2021 ). Three individuals from the chapter house who died c .…”

Section: The Skeletonsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Three individuals from the chapter house who died c . 1450–1538 also tested positive for Y. pestis (F.190, F.230, F.310), indicating that they probably died of plague in one or more later outbreaks (Cessford et al 2021 ; Spyrou et al 2019 ). Unfortunately, two of the samples were too low coverage to determine if the strains from the three individuals were identical or not.…”

Section: The Skeletonsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The people of the Cambridge Austin friars

Cessford

Neil

2022

Archaeological Journal

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The Austin friars in Cambridge was an important religious institution between the late thirteenth and mid-sixteenth centuries. Excavations have revealed well-dated and contextualised burials associated with the friary, as well as a range of material culture. The burials have been subject to a wide range of analyses including osteology, palaeopathology, stable isotopes, ancient DNA and geometric morphometrics. Significantly the distinction between clothed and shrouded burials allows members of the Augustinian order and the laity to be identified. This represents the best-understood published group of burials from an Austin friars in the British Isles and emphasises the importance of nuanced interpretation, as burial at friaries was a structured and multi-local phenomenon. These burials and other material can be interpreted in terms of both mendicant ideals and anti-fraternal criticisms.

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“…Apart from the friars, some patrons of the friary were also buried in the cemetery and chapter house of the friary. The first wave of the Second Plague Pandemic (which we hereafter refer to with the commonly used term ‘Black Death’, although the term was not in use until the 18th century) hit Cambridge in 1349; some victims of it were found in a mass burial of unknown size on Bene’t Street (Cessford et al, 2021). Two parish cemeteries outside Cambridge, Cherry Hinton and Clopton, are within the rural hinterland of the town.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Medieval social landscape through the genetic history of Cambridgeshire before and after the Black Death

Hui

Scheib

D’Atanasio

et al. 2023

Preprint

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The extent of the devastation of the Black Death pandemic (1346-53) on European populations is known from documentary sources and its bacterial source illuminated by studies of ancient pathogen DNA. What has remained less understood is the effect of the pandemic on human mobility and genetic diversity at local scale in the context of the social stratification of medieval communities. Here we study 275 newly reported ancient genomes from later medieval and post-medieval Cambridgeshire, from individuals buried before, during, and after the Black Death. The majority of individuals examined had local genetic ancestries. Consistent with the function of the institutions, we found a lack of close relatives among the friars and the inmates of the hospital in contrast to their abundance in general urban and rural parish communities. Accounting for the genetic component for height accentuates the disparities between social groups in stature estimated from long bones, as a proxy for health and the quality of life. While we detect long-term shifts in local genetic ancestry in Cambridgeshire that either pre- or postdate the Black Death, we find no evidence of major changes in genetic ancestry nor, in contrast to recent claims, higher differentiation of immune loci between cohorts living before and after the Black Death.

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Beyond Plague Pits: Using Genetics to Identify Responses to Plague in Medieval Cambridgeshire

Cited by 20 publications

References 13 publications

The Black Death in Hereford, England: A demographic analysis of the Cathedral 14th‐century plague mass graves and associated parish cemetery

The Black Death in Hereford, England: A demographic analysis of the Cathedral 14th‐century plague mass graves and associated parish cemetery

The people of the Cambridge Austin friars

Medieval social landscape through the genetic history of Cambridgeshire before and after the Black Death

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