Excavation reports often have a long gestation, and the publication of the City of Hereford Archaeology Unit’s 1993 excavations on the site of Hereford Cathedral’s new Mappa Mundi museum has been eagerly awaited. Yet any frustration at the delay quickly…
In 1350, the Black Death had begun to ravage Scotland after spreading north from London. Over the next three centuries, the plague would return to Scotland multiple times, with the last major outbreak occurring in 1644-1649, thought to have been…
Past studies of medieval populations have often glossed over any heterogeneity that probably existed in that period, often depicting a majority ‘white’ society. While this may be true of more rural settings, urban ones, particularly in places like London which…
Although people with this variant would have been better able to survive a Y. pestis infection, it overlaps with alleles that are associated with an increased risk of developing an autoimmune disease,.
Spanning roughly 1,100 years, this lively book is billed as ‘a romp across continents and kingdoms’, and it does not disappoint. Historian Eleanor Janega unpicks complex topics with verve, irreverent humour, and a scattering of pop-culture references, all accompanied by…
Across the country, plague victims were lodged in basic pesthouses constructed during earlier outbreaks.
‘Even during Plague outbreaks, individual people were being buried with considerable care and attention.'
The high bacterial load of plague bacterium in their bloodstream indicates it was likely transmitted through the bite of an infected rodent, resulting in septicemia plague.
St Mary Spital was London’s first religious house founded by Londoners. Between 1197 and 1539, the Augustinian priory flourished, developing from a small roadside hospital into a large institution serving the capital’s poor and sick – a story brought to light by almost two decades of excavations, as Susan M Wright reports.
For millennia, fresh ice forming on a European glacier marked the passing years like tree rings. But over time these layers became compressed, preventing individual years within the depths of the ice from being examined individually. A new technology is now unlocking this remarkable repository of information, as Alexander More, Christopher Loveluck, Michael McCormick, and Paul Mayewski told World Archaeology.
A recently opened museum at London’s Charterhouse illuminates centuries of life at this former medieval monastery. Lucia Marchini explores some of the highlights.