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

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

Publications: Contribution to journalArticlePeer Reviewed

Abstract

Ancient DNA from Yersinia pestis has been identified in skeletons at four urban burial grounds in Cambridge, England, and at a nearby rural cemetery. Dating to between ad 1349 and 1561, these represent individuals who died of plague during the second pandemic. Most come from normative individual burials, rather than mass graves. This pattern represents a major advance in archaeological knowledge, shifting focus away from a few exceptional discoveries of mass burials to what was normal practice in most medieval contexts. Detailed consideration of context allows the authors to identify a range of burial responses to the second pandemic within a single town and its hinterland. This permits the creation of a richer and more varied narrative than has previously been possible.
Original languageEnglish
Article number146195712100019
Pages (from-to)496-518
Number of pages23
JournalEuropean Journal of Archaeology
Volume24
Issue number4
Early online date17 Jul 2021
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2021

Austrian Fields of Science 2012

  • 106014 Genomics
  • 601004 Epigraphy

Keywords

  • plague
  • second plague pandemic
  • ancient DNA
  • burials
  • Cambridge
  • BLACK-DEATH

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