Curiosity
Black death pit found under London Crossrail
Black Death pit
In a location just outside the ancient walls of London once known as “No Man’s Land”, researchers have unearthed of pit once used to discard victims of the “black death”. Archaeologists have dated artifacts found at the site to the middle 14th century during the time of the black plague.
From other records, archaeologists knew of the burial site’s existence but had not been able to locate it until the Crossrail project unearthed human remains. So far, thirteen bodies have been recovered. DNA samples have been taken from the victims in the hopes of mapping how the bacterium spread through this region.
The victims recovered thus far are some of the earliest known victims of the “black death” before the disease reached pandemic levels generations later. Researchers have been working closely with engineers from the Crossrail project for the possible discovery of archaeology believed to exist under the proposed paths of the railway project. Thus far, historical findings have been unearthed from prehistoric times right up to the industrial age of the 20th century.
However, this burial site spanning a mere 5.5 meters in diameter is the most significant find thus far as per Jay Carver, a project archaeologist working on the Crossrail project.
Crossrail lead archaeologist Jay Carver said: “This is a highly significant discovery and at the moment we are left with many questions that we hope to answer.
“We will be undertaking scientific tests on the skeletons over the coming months to establish their cause of death, whether they were plague victims from the 14th century or later residents, how old they were and perhaps evidence of who they were.
“However, at this early stage… all points towards this being part of the 14th century emergency burial ground.”
He added: “The general assumption about human exhumation is that they should stay in the ground. There is normally no justification for digging up skeletons except for important research like this, but we now have our sample.”
On The Web:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21784141?filter=EditorPicks
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/13-skeletons-are-found-in-black-death-pit-under-farringdon–and-there-could-be-50000-more-8535739.html
