Sometimes archaeologists are forced to study what they can identify, even when they recognize that it is not representative. One instance of this concerns burials of people who died of plague during the Black Death in the mid-14th century and later outbreaks. Plague kills people rapidly, leaving no visible skeletal traces. Previously when studying plague burials archaeologists have had to look at either mass burials or burial grounds specifically established to deal with plague victims. This is despite the fact that most plague victims received individual burial in existing burial grounds. More recently analysis of ancient DNA has identified Yersinia pestis, the pathogen that causes plague, in individuals from a number of mass burials.

Researchers from the After the Plague project, based at the University of Cambridge, have extended this work by studying DNA from a large number of individuals buried in Cambridge and the surrounding countryside, revealing individuals with Yersinia pestis DNA from several burial grounds. The church of All Saints by the Castle in Cambridge was abandoned in 1365, allegedly because the church was partly ruinous and ‘the bones of dead bodies are exposed to beasts’. Testing revealed an individual from the associated cemetery with Yersinia pestis DNA, who contrary to the rather apocalyptic contemporary description received a perfectly normal burial, indistinguishable from others in the cemetery. Similarly, testing of individuals from the village of Clopton southwest of Cambridge revealed several individuals who died of plague that are indistinguishable from the other burials in the cemetery.

The most intriguing site is the Augustinian friary in Cambridge. Six individuals were buried inside the friary chapter house in the 15th and early 16th centuries, three of whom tested positive for Yersinia pestis. The chapter house was one of the most important buildings in the friary, used for daily meetings. Burying people in the chapter house was a rare event, which would have caused considerable disruption and required significant effort. Prior to a burial taking place it would have been necessary to lift part of the tiled floor, dig a large hole and remove the soil from the building. Afterwards the hole would need to be filled in and the floor replaced. Burying individuals in the chapter house represented a considerable investment of time and effort during a plague outbreak, showing a community attempting to respect the dead as much as possible in extremely difficult circumstances.

Our work has also confirmed that mass burials took place in Cambridge, as Yersinia pestis was identified in a group of skeletons in St Bene’t’s churchyard. Individuals who died from plague in Cambridge received a wide range of types of burial, with individual graves in parish cemeteries and a chapter house to mass burials. This wide range of responses presents a much more nuanced view of how the dead were treated during plague outbreaks than has previously been possible.

The open access article Beyond Plague Pits: Using Genetics to Identify Responses to Plague in Medieval Cambridgeshire is out now via FirstView on Cambridge Core.

Image: The Augustinian friary chapter house, Cambridge, undergoing excavation.