pandemics

World Archaeology
136

Pestilence and population shifts

The discovery of a mass grave in the Jordanian city of Jerash (ancient Gerasa) has provided evidence of the impact on the population of the Justinian Plague. A newly published study of the burial site has revealed that at least 230 individuals were hastily buried on top of each other, rather than in individual graves, within the city’s abandoned hippodrome

LEFT This evocative artist’s impression gives the traditional view of what a civil settlement outside a Roman fort may have looked like, in this case Housesteads on Hadrian’s Wall, as envisaged by Ronald Embleton.

Current Archaeology
365

Plague on Hadrian’s Wall? Interpreting evidence for pandemics in Roman Britain

Was there plague on Britain’s Roman frontier? Two Hadrian’s Wall archaeologists examine the clues: Nick Hodgson investigates the Antonine plague of the later 2nd century, while David Breeze considers the possible impact of the less well-known late 3rd-century Cyprian plague.