scholarly journals Strong but not Unbeatable: Two Cases of Healed Severe Skull Trauma in Males Buried in Medieval Mass Graves (Kutná Hora-Sedlec, Czech Republic)

2021 ◽  
Vol 34 ◽  
pp. 25-37
Author(s):  
Hana Brzobohatá ◽  
Filip Velímský ◽  
Jan Frolík
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Surgical Intervention ◽  
Black Death ◽  
Mass Graves ◽  
14Th Century ◽  
Mining Region ◽  
Mass Burial ◽  
Skull Trauma ◽  
Cranial Injury

This paper presents two cases of healed skull trauma recovered from medieval mass burial sites in Kutná Hora-Sedlec (Kutná Hora District/CZ). These recently unearthed burial pits are historically and contextually associated with two key catastrophes: (1) a famine in the early 14th century; and (2) the Black Death in the mid-14th century. The first skull presents evidence of survival from severe cranial injury with highly probable surgical intervention. The second one presents evidence of successful skull surgery, confirming the practice of trepanation performed by a skilled specialist in a given region at a given time in history. Although both individuals had been robust enough to withstand the pain and strain of the treatment, indicating considerable resilience to survive the skull trauma, they succumbed to mass infection or famine that killed a large number of inhabitants of this prominent medieval mining region.

scholarly journals Mobility, mortality, and the middle ages: Identification of migrant individuals in a 14th century black death cemetery population

2012 ◽  
Vol 150 (2) ◽  
pp. 210-222 ◽  
Author(s):  
E.J. Kendall ◽  
J. Montgomery ◽  
J.A. Evans ◽  
C. Stantis ◽  
V. Mueller
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Black Death ◽  
14Th Century ◽  
The Middle Ages

Contagion in Theology and Law: Ethical Considerations in the Writings of Two 14th Century Scholars of Nasrid Granada

2007 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-129 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin Stearns
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Natural Disaster ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Black Death ◽  
Ethical Considerations ◽  
14Th Century ◽  
The Social ◽  
Ethical Response ◽  
Intellectual Challenge ◽  
Previous Scholarship

AbstractThe Black Death, which struck al-Andalus in the second half of the 8th/14th century, was an unprecedented natural disaster. In this essay I examine the legal and ethical responses of two Granadan scholars to the social and intellectual challenge posed by this event. Whereas previous scholarship has almost universally lauded the stridently critical stance of the wazir Ibn al-Khatīb as an exceptional example of rational empiricism, I argue that his stance is more productively understood when compared to that of his teacher Ibn Lubb. Both scholars articulated an ethical response to an insurmountable challenge from within a medical and legal framework. Their interpretive choices and conclusions were based not so much on one scholar's privileging of empirical evidence over legal dogma, or vice versa, as they were on both scholars' grounding their respective statements in differing understandings of the nature of the evidence at hand.

scholarly journals Genetic Evidence of the Black Death in the Abbey of San Leonardo (Apulia Region, Italy): Tracing the Cause of Death in Two Individuals Buried with Coins

Pathogens ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 1354
Author(s):  
Donato Antonio Raele ◽  
Ginevra Panzarino ◽  
Giuseppe Sarcinelli ◽  
Maria Assunta Cafiero ◽  
Anna Maria Tunzi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Medical Center ◽  
Molecular Evidence ◽  
Black Death ◽  
Human Teeth ◽  
14Th Century ◽  
Human Dna ◽  
Epidemic Typhus ◽  
Negative Controls ◽  
First Time

The Abbey of San Leonardo in Siponto (Apulia, Southern Italy) was an important religious and medical center during the Middle Ages. It was a crossroads for pilgrims heading along the Via Francigena to the Sanctuary of Monte Sant’Angelo and for merchants passing through the harbor of Manfredonia. A recent excavation of Soprintendenza Archeologica della Puglia investigated a portion of the related cemetery, confirming its chronology to be between the end of the 13th and beginning of the 14th century. Two single graves preserved individuals accompanied by numerous coins dating back to the 14th century, hidden in clothes and in a bag tied to the waist. The human remains of the individuals were analyzed in the Laboratorio di Antropologia Fisica of Soprintendenza ABAP della città metropolitana di Bari. Three teeth from each individual were collected and sent to the Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale di Puglia e Basilicata to study infectious diseases such as malaria, plague, tuberculosis, epidemic typhus and Maltese fever (Brucellosis), potentially related to the lack of inspection of the bodies during burial procedures. DNA extracted from six collected teeth and two additional unrelated human teeth (negative controls) were analyzed using PCR to verify the presence of human DNA (β-globulin) and of pathogens such as Plasmodium spp., Yersinia pestis, Mycobacterium spp., Rickettsia spp. and Brucella spp. The nucleotide sequence of the amplicon was determined to confirm the results. Human DNA was successfully amplified from all eight dental extracts and two different genes of Y. pestis were amplified and sequenced in 4 out of the 6 teeth. Molecular analyses ascertained that the individuals buried in San Leonardo were victims of the Black Death (1347–1353) and the data confirmed the lack of inspection of the corpses despite the presence of numerous coins. This study represents molecular evidence, for the first time, of Southern Italy’s involvement in the second wave of the plague pandemic.

Die Pest und die Juden - Mythen, Fakten, Topoi

Aschkenas ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-62
Author(s):  
Klaus Bergdolt
Keyword(s):  
Black Death ◽  
14Th Century ◽  
General Anxiety ◽  
Financial Interests ◽  
Medical Theory ◽  
Anti Jewish

Abstract This paper explores the relation between the »Black Death« and the persecutions of Jews in the mid-14th century. At first glance, it may come as a surprise that pogroms never took place during an outbreak (as some black legends claim). They were a phenomenon which occurred, typically, before or (seldom) after a plague. When everyone had to reckon with the deadly danger, the charge of well-poisoning, which had a long and fatal tradition, moved to the centre again, accompanied by other incriminations of Jews. Having been of more theoretical (or magic) importance before then, the terrible accusation now seemed to be justified more than ever by the medical theory that poisoned water could cause »miasmata«. The general anxiety, described excellently by Petrarch and other contemporaries, provided an ideal playground for fanatics and zealots who tried to convince people of the validity of such assumptions. It is therefore no wonder that the number of pogroms increased dramatically in 1348/49. They were promoted by the tactics of the emperor who sold his profitable role as a »protector of the Jews« increasingly to the »Imperial Free Cities«. In many towns the Black Death was preceded (or sometimes followed) by anti-Jewish massacres that were instigated by anti-Jewish writings and pamphlets. Only a general crisis of mentality and widespread moral decadence made this possible. The solid financial interests of certain groups of society seem also to have played an important role. Nevertheless, we have to admit that these medieval persecutions have left many questions open - to this day.

scholarly journals The Plague of Athens Shedding Light on Modern Struggles with COVID-19

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (43) ◽  
pp. 47-49
Author(s):  
Jilene Malbeuf ◽  
Peter Johnson ◽  
John Johnson ◽  
Austin Mardon
Keyword(s):  
Modern Technology ◽  
Current Situation ◽  
Black Death ◽  
Peloponnesian War ◽  
Human History ◽  
World War ◽  
World War One ◽  
14Th Century ◽  
Good Fortune ◽  
Spanish Flu

In 2020, we are facing unprecedented times, and as some form of lockdown continues with no signs of ending feelings of hopelessness are completely natural and understandable. Unprecedented times does not mean that these current issues and struggles have never been faced by humanity before, however. The Spanish Flu which took place after World War One and the Black Death that was rampant in Asia and Europe in the 14th century quickly come to mind as examples of past pandemics, but these are only two examples of devastating diseases throughout human history. The Plague of Athens that was raging during the beginning of the Peloponnesian War in 430 BCE is another such example. Though removed from our current situation by many centuries, its symptoms and the effects it had on the population of Athens have been meticulously recorded by the general and historian Thucydides, giving us the opportunity to compare his account to our own experiences today. The disease may be different, and the image he portrays may be more violent and desperate than our own, but nonetheless we can see similarities in how these two separate societies have reacted to unforeseen hardships. In this comparison, we can come to understand at once our own good fortune at going through a pandemic with the support of modern technology and medicine as well as how universal our reactions are to this type of suffering, thereby making it natural rather than shameful. Humanity has faced a great deal of diversity before, and COVID-19 will likely prove to be no different.

scholarly journals Urban Elite and the Dubrovnik Area from the Late 13th Century to the Black Death

2019 ◽  
Vol 38 (56) ◽  
pp. 15-73
Author(s):  
Irena Benyovsky Latin ◽  
Zrinka Pešorda Vardić ◽  
Gordan Ravančić ◽  
Ivana Haničar Buljan
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Distribution ◽  
The Other ◽  
Black Death ◽  
13Th Century ◽  
14Th Century ◽  
The Social ◽  
Urban Elite

This paper focuses on the spatial distribution of Dubrovnik’s urban elite, observed on the examples of the families of Matijaš de Mençe and Anđelo Ljutica, in the period from the late 13th to the mid-14th century and the time of Black Death. Using the methods of social topography and prosopography, the authors have studied the interrelation of the social and ownership statuses of these families, addressing the question of their social and spatial interconnections. In the early 14th century, both families belonged to the elite urban circles, but with a key difference: one of them was noble, and the other a family of commoners

“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 Eighteenth century Yersinia pestis genomes reveal the long-term persistence of an historical plague focus

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kirsten I Bos ◽  
Alexander Herbig ◽  
Jason Sahl ◽  
Nicholas Waglechner ◽  
Mathieu Fourment ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Yersinia Pestis ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Disease Outbreaks ◽  
Black Death ◽  
14Th Century ◽  
The Many

The 14th-18th century pandemic of Yersinia pestis caused devastating disease outbreaks in Europe for almost 400 years. The reasons for plague's persistence and abrupt disappearance in Europe are poorly understood, but could have been due to either the presence of now-extinct plague foci in Europe itself, or successive disease introductions from other locations. Here we present five Y. pestis genomes from one of the last European outbreaks of plague, from 1722 in Marseille, France. The lineage identified has not been found in any extant Y. pestis foci sampled to date, and has its ancestry in strains obtained from victims of the 14th century Black Death. These data suggest the existence of a previously uncharacterized historical plague focus that persisted for at least three centuries. We propose that this disease source may have been responsible for the many resurgences of plague in Europe following the Black Death.

scholarly journals The Impact of the Black Death on Iranian Trade (1340s-1450s A.D.)

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 221-232
Author(s):  
Ahmad Fazlinejad ◽  
Farajollah Ahmadi
Keyword(s):  
International Trade ◽  
Economic Consequences ◽  
Black Death ◽  
14Th Century ◽  
Trade Routes ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Commercial Relationships

The Great Plague, generally known as the Black Death, swept many parts of the three continents of Asia, Africa and Europe in the mid-14th century repeatedly for decades and inflicted widespread demographical, social and economic consequences. Contrary to the common attitude of researchers in neglecting the spread of the Black Death in Iran during the 14th century and its relapse periods, findings of this study indicate that the Great Plague, which had numerous victims in Iran, mostly disrupted the country’s commercial relationships with the plague-stricken trade routes and centers. Moreover, due to the tragic consequences caused by the Black Death, Iran lost its position as one of the main routes in the international trade. In this study, based predominantly on historiographical sources in Persian and Arabic, Iran’s position in international trade in the era of Black Death is analyzed.

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