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

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Craig Cessford ◽  
Christiana L. Scheib ◽  
Meriam Guellil ◽  
Marcel Keller ◽  
Craig Alexander ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Yersinia Pestis ◽  
Ancient Dna ◽  
Major Advance ◽  
Mass Graves ◽  
Detailed Consideration ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Archaeological Knowledge ◽  
Burial Grounds

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.

scholarly journals Bioarchaeological insights into the last plague of Imola (1630–1632)

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Meriam Guellil ◽  
Natascia Rinaldo ◽  
Nicoletta Zedda ◽  
Oliver Kersten ◽  
Xabier Gonzalez Muro ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Yersinia Pestis ◽  
Patient Outcomes ◽  
Multidisciplinary Approach ◽  
Genomic Data ◽  
Northern Italy ◽  
Mass Mortality ◽  
Metagenomic Analysis ◽  
Mass Graves ◽  
Physical Trauma ◽  
The City

AbstractThe plague of 1630–1632 was one of the deadliest plague epidemics to ever hit Northern Italy, and for many of the affected regions, it was also the last. While accounts on plague during the early 1630s in Florence and Milan are frequent, much less is known about the city of Imola. We analyzed the full skeletal assemblage of four mass graves (n = 133 individuals) at the Lazaretto dell’Osservanza, which date back to the outbreak of 1630–1632 in Imola and evaluated our results by integrating new archival sources. The skeletons showed little evidence of physical trauma and were covered by multiple layers of lime, which is characteristic for epidemic mass mortality sites. We screened 15 teeth for Yersinia pestis aDNA and were able to confirm the presence of plague in Imola via metagenomic analysis. Additionally, we studied a contemporaneous register, in which a friar recorded patient outcomes at the lazaretto during the last year of the epidemic. Our multidisciplinary approach combining historical, osteological and genomic data provided a unique opportunity to reconstruct an in-depth picture of the last plague of Imola through the city's main lazaretto.

“Mass Graves” and the “Burial Grounds of Enemies”: The Symbolic Significance of Mass Burials in Soviet Russia/USSR, 1920s–1940s («Бpaтcкиe мoгилы» и «вpaжecкиe мoгильники»: cимвoличecкoe oзнaчивaниe мaccoвыx зaxopoнeний в Coвeтcкoй Poccии/CCCP 1920-x–1940-x гoдoв)

2017 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 233-263
Author(s):  
Svetlana Malysheva ◽  
Cвeтлaнa Maлышeвa
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Mass Graves ◽  
Burial Practices ◽  
Binary Oppositions ◽  
Mass Burial ◽  
Soviet Ideology ◽  
Soviet Russia ◽  
Burial Grounds

For several decades, the mass burial practices in Soviet Russia were strongly linked with Soviet ideology and the practices of everyday life. Soviet military and state officials intentionally and unintentionally used mass graves as a political and ideological tool. Soviet Russian and Soviet authorities noted mass graves in documents and in public discourse, and couched them in a “figure of silence.” Places of mass burials were given meaning and characterized as systems of ideological representation and the binary oppositions of “ours” versus “foreign.” This article examines the practice of mass burials from the 1920s to the 1940s and how it shaped and influenced Soviet Russian and Soviet ideological constructs.

scholarly journals Assessing the origins of the European Plagues following the Black Death: a synthesis of genomic, historical and ecological information

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Bramanti ◽  
Yarong Wu ◽  
Ruifu Yang ◽  
Yujun Cui ◽  
Nils Chr. Stenseth
Keyword(s):  
Yersinia Pestis ◽  
Ancient Dna ◽  
Black Death ◽  
Holistic View ◽  
Scientific Debate ◽  
Ecological Information ◽  
Scientific Disagreement ◽  
Western European

AbstractThe Second Plague Pandemic started in Europe with the Black Death in 1346 and lasted until the 19th century. Based on ancient DNA studies, there is a scientific disagreement over whether the bacterium, Yersinia pestis, came into Europe once (Hypothesis 1), or repeatedly over the following four centuries (Hypothesis 2). Here we synthesize the most updated phylogeny together with historical, archeological, evolutionary and ecological information. On the basis of this holistic view, we conclude that Hypothesis 2 is the most plausible. We also suggest that Y. pestis lineages might have developed attenuated virulence during transmission, which can explain the convergent evolutionary signals, including pla-decay, that appeared at the end of the pandemics.Significance StatementOver the last few years there has been a great deal of scientific debate regarding whether the plague bacterium, Yersinia pestis, spread from a Western European reservoir during the Second Plague Pandemic, or if it repeatedly came to Europe from Asia. Here we make a synthesis of the available evidence, including genomes of ancient DNA, historical, archeological and ecological information. We conclude that the bacterium most likely came to Europe from Asia several times during the Second Plague Pandemic.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
pp. 1-4
Author(s):  
Kay Prag
Keyword(s):  
Great Britain ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Technical Competence ◽  
Archaeological Excavation ◽  
Archival Record ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Archaeological Knowledge ◽  
The City ◽  
Major Project

This chapter briefly describes the setting up by Dame Kathleen Kenyon of a major project of archaeological excavation in Jerusalem in 1961, and its contemporary aims based on scientific processes. Archaeological knowledge of the city at the time was very limited, based on old excavations, mostly inadequately published. Kenyon’s technical competence to achieve this was based on archaeological experience gained during excavation in Great Britain, Palestine and North Africa. The result was the creation of an archival record and study collection for future research.

Absence of Yersinia pestis-specific DNA in human teeth from five European excavations of putative plague victims

Microbiology ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 150 (2) ◽  
pp. 341-354 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Thomas P. Gilbert ◽  
Jon Cuccui ◽  
William White ◽  
Niels Lynnerup ◽  
Richard W. Titball ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Yersinia Pestis ◽  
Ancient Dna ◽  
Dna Sequences ◽  
Bacterial Species ◽  
Collaborative Study ◽  
Independent Research ◽  
Human Teeth ◽  
Bacterial Dna ◽  
Embedding Technique ◽  
Positive Results

This study reports the results of a collaborative study undertaken by two independent research groups to (a) confirm recent PCR-based detection of Yersinia pestis DNA in human teeth from medieval plague victims in France, and (b) to extend these observations over five different European burial sites believed to contain plague victims dating from the late 13th to 17th centuries. Several different sets of primers were used, including those previously documented to yield positive results on ancient DNA extracts. No Y. pestis DNA could be amplified from DNA extracted from 108 teeth belonging to 61 individuals, despite the amplification of numerous other bacterial DNA sequences. Several methods of extracting dentine prior to the DNA extraction were also compared. PCR for bacterial 16S rDNA indicated the presence of multiple bacterial species in 23 out of 27 teeth DNA extracts where dentine was extracted using previously described methods. In comparison, positive results were obtained from only five out of 44 teeth DNA extracts for which a novel contamination-minimizing embedding technique was used. Therefore, high levels of environmental bacterial DNA are present in DNA extracts where previously described methods of tooth manipulation are used. To conclude, the absence of Y. pestis-specific DNA in an exhaustive search using specimens from multiple putative European plague burial sites does not allow us to confirm the identification of Y. pestis as the aetiological agent of the Black Death and subsequent plagues. In addition, the utility of the published tooth-based ancient DNA technique used to diagnose fatal bacteraemias in historical epidemics still awaits independent corroboration.

scholarly journals Fields, Funerals and Furnaces: On the Use of Fire during the Pre-Roman Iron Age on the Island of Gotland

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-23
Author(s):  
Anna Arnberg
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Iron Production ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Physical Transformation ◽  
Roman People ◽  
Field Systems ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Burial Grounds

By studying the material culture of the island of Gotland, one can conclude that the use of fire was integrated into the lives of the Pre-Roman people. Agricultural land was cleared by fire and cremation was a part of the burial tradition. Fire converted clay into ceramics, wood into charcoal and bog ore into iron. By being subjected to the flames human beings, objects and the landscape were created and/or trans formed. This paper presents fossilized field systems, burial grounds and areas with iron production as places for this physical transformation, as well as places for the creation of bonds between people.

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