Plague mortality and medieval demography: an osteological analysis of Black Death mass graves and attritional cemeteries from 7-16th century England and Wales

Abstract

This thesis adopted a holistic approach, considering mass graves and attritional cemeteries, to explore the influence of plague mortality on the demography of medieval Britain. Between 1348-51AD, approximately half of the population of Britain were killed by plague. This epidemic, the Black Death, marked the start of the Second Plague Pandemic whereby plague outbreaks occurred repeatedly until the mid-17th century. Most osteological studies concerning medieval plague epidemiology focus on skeletons within mass graves, however many people killed by plague were buried within attritional cemeteries. The extent to which the inclusion of plague victims within attritional cemeteries influences demographic profiles requires further research. Six cemeteries from 7-16th century England and Wales were osteologically analysed. In total, 586 adult skeletons were analysed individually, and aggregated into cemetery types based on burial context: 317 from three attritional cemeteries pre-dating the Black Death, 73 from Black Death mass graves, and 196 from two attritional cemeteries spanning the Black Death. For each skeleton, age-at-death and biological sex were estimated and stress markers were recorded. Life table, Kolmogorov- Smirnov and Kaplan Meier analyses were conducted. Those aged 15-24 years, and those with linear enamel hypoplasia present, were substantially over-represented within the mass graves — suggesting these groups were particularly vulnerable to plague mortality. Socioeconomic and environmental factors may have increased their mortality risk. Demography varied between the pre-Black Death aggregate and that spanning the Black Death, but not in a way implicating plague. More nuanced analysis of attritional cemeteries is recommended due to variation between attritional demographic profiles.