A new paper published in the
American Journal of Physical Anthropology presents the results of a study of the bones of “314 individuals dating from the 10
th to the 14
th century,” excavated from three burial sites in Cambridge. The skeletal samples were taken from a parish graveyard where working people were buried, a hospital graveyard where the infirm and destitute were buried, and from an Augustinian friary where wealthy sponsors were interred beside rich clergymen. The researchers studied the levels of skeletal trauma in the skeletons, which they say indicated the hardship endured in life.” Their paper concludes that “ social inequality is recorded on the bones of Cambridge’s medieval residents”.
Advertisement
Working class people in medieval Cambridge lived hard lives that meant they were far more likely to suffer serious physical injury that the upper echelons of society, a new study reveals.
It found nearly half (44 per cent) of people on the lowest rung of the social ladder from the 10th to 14th centuries suffered some form of broken bone by the time they died.
For people buried at a friary or by a hospital individuals who were of higher social standing or suffering from illness this figure drops to 32 and 27 per cent, respectively.
Fractures were more common overall in men (40 per cent) than women (26 per cent).
The remains of numerous individuals unearthed on the former site of the Hospital of St. John the Evangelist, taken during the 2010 excavation on the site of the Divinity School building, St John s College, University of Cambridge. Credit: Cambridge Archaeological Unit. Read Time:
Social inequality was recorded on the bones of Cambridge s medieval residents, according to a new study of hundreds of human remains excavated from three very different burial sites within the historic city centre.
University of Cambridge researchers examined the remains of 314 individuals dating from the 10th to the 14th century and collected evidence of skeletal trauma - a barometer for levels of hardship endured in life.