The skeleton of a friar with two broken legs resembling a medieval hit and run , probably from a cart accident that killed him, has been unearthed by Cambridge archaeologists.
The team from the University of Cambridge were examining skeletal trauma from 314 skeletons buried at three locations in the city between the 10th and 14th century.
The friar, identified by his burial place and belt buckle, suffered two broken thigh bones as a result of what researchers believe was a cart accident where he was struck by the wagon.
Skeletons were recovered from across the social spectrum including a parish graveyard for ordinary working people, a charitable hospital that buried the sick and destitute, and an Augustinian friary that buried wealthy donors alongside clergy.
Evidence of skeletal trauma among over 300 individuals from three very different cemeteries reveals varying levels of physical hardship across the social spectrum of Cambridge, UK, between the 10th and 14th century.
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.