Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Home
Hostname: page-component-69b877888f-5rl26 Total loading time: 0.553 Render date: 2022-06-23T12:49:14.530Z Has data issue: false Feature Flags: { "shouldUseShareProductTool": true, "shouldUseHypothesis": true, "isUnsiloEnabled": true, "useRatesEcommerce": false, "useNewApi": true }
  • English
Antiquity Antiquity

Article contents

A Black Death mass grave at Thornton Abbey: the discovery and examination of a fourteenth-century rural catastrophe

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 February 2020

Hugh Willmott Open the ORCID record for Hugh Willmott[Opens in a new window] ,
Peter Townend ,
Diana Mahoney Swales ,
Hendrik Poinar ,
Katherine Eaton  and
Jennifer Klunk
Hugh Willmott*
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Sheffield, UK
Peter Townend
Affiliation:
Network Archaeology, Lincoln, UK
Diana Mahoney Swales
Affiliation:
Centre for Anatomy & Human Identification, University of Dundee, UK
Hendrik Poinar
Affiliation:
McMaster Ancient DNA Centre, McMaster University, Canada
Katherine Eaton
Affiliation:
McMaster Ancient DNA Centre, McMaster University, Canada
Jennifer Klunk
Affiliation:
McMaster Ancient DNA Centre, McMaster University, Canada
*
*Author for correspondence: ✉ h.willmott@sheffield.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions[Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The discovery of mass burial sites is rare in Europe, particularly in rural areas. Recent excavations at Thornton Abbey in Lincolnshire have revealed a previously unknown catastrophic mass grave containing the remains of at least 48 men, women and children, with radiocarbon dating placing the event in the fourteenth century AD. The positive identification of Yersinia pestis in sampled skeletal remains suggests that the burial population died from the Black Death. This site represents the first Black Death mass grave found in Britain in a non-urban context, and provides unique evidence for the devastating impact of this epidemic on a small rural community.

Keywords

BritainThornton AbbeyBlack Deathmass graveYersinia pestis
Type
Research Article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 94 , Issue 373 , February 2020 , pp. 179 - 196
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anderson, D.L., Thompson, G.W. & Popovich, F.. 1976. Age attainment of mineralization stages of the permanent dentition. Journal of Forensic Sciences 21: 191–200. https://doi.org/10.1520/JFS10353JCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Beaty, N. 1970. The craft of dying: a study of the literary traditions of the Ars Moriendi in England. London: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Benedictow, O.J. 1987. Morbidity in historical plague epidemics. Population Studies 41: 401–31. https://doi.org/10.1080/0032472031000142976CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bianucci, R. & Kacki, S.. 2012. The archaeology of the second plague pandemic: an overview of French funerary contexts, in Harbeck, M., von Heyking, K. & Schwarzberg, H. (ed.) Sickness, hunger, war, and religion: multidisciplinary perspectives: 71–74. Munich: RCC Perspectives.Google Scholar
Bolton, J. 1996. The world upside down: plague as an agent of economic and social change, in Ormrod, W. & Lindley, P. (ed.) The Black Death in England: 17–78. Stamford: Paul Watkins.Google Scholar
Bond, E.A. (ed.). 1868. Chronica Monasterii de Melsa, volume 3. London: Longmans, Green, Reader & Dyer.Google Scholar
Bos, K.I. et al. 2011. A draft genome of Yersinia pestis from victims of the Black Death. Nature 478: 506–10. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature10549CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bronk Ramsey, C. 2009. Bayesian analysis of radiocarbon dates. Radiocarbon 51: 337–60. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033822200033865CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brooks, S. & Suchey, J.M.. 1990. Skeletal age determination based on the os pubis: a comparison of the Acsádi-Nemeskéri and Suchey-Brooks methods. Human Evolution 5: 227–38. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02437238CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buikstra, J.E. & Ubelaker, D.H.. 1994. Standards for data collection from human skeletal remains. Fayetteville: Arkansas Archaeological Survey.Google Scholar
Connell, B., Jones, A.G., Redfern, R. & Walker, D.. 2012. A bioarchaeological study of medieval burials on the site of St Mary Spital: excavations at Spitalfields Market, London E1, 1991–2007 (Museum of London Archaeology Monograph 60). London: Museum of London.Google Scholar
Coppack, G. 1991. The precinct of Thornton Abbey, South Humberside. The planning of a major Augustine house, in Tyszka, D., Miller, K. & Bryant, J. (ed.) Land, people and landscapes: essays on the history of the Lincolnshire region written in honour of Rex C. Russell: 37–44. Lincoln: Lincolnshire County Council.Google Scholar
Dabney, J., Knapp, M., Glocke, I., Gansauge, M.T., Weihmann, A., Nickel, B., Valdiosera, C., García, N., Pääbo, S. & Arsuaga, J.-L.. 2013. Complete mitochondrial genome sequence of a Middle Pleistocene cave bear reconstructed from ultrashort DNA fragments. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 110: 15758–63. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1314445110CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Devault, A.M. et al. 2014. Second-pandemic strain of Vibrio cholerae from the Philadelphia cholera outbreak of 1849. New England Journal of Medicine 370: 334–40. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa1308663CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Duday, H. 2008. Archaeological proof of an abrupt mortality crisis: simultaneous deposit of cadavers, simultaneous deaths?, in Raoult, D. & Drancourt, M. (ed.) Paleomicrobiology: past human infections: 49–54. Berlin & Heidelberg: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-75855-6_3CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duggan, A.T. et al. 2016. 17th-century variola virus reveals the recent history of smallpox. Current Biology 26: 3407–12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2016.10.061CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gilchrist, R. 1995. Contemplation and action: the other monasticism. Leicester: Leicester University Press.Google Scholar
Gottfried, R.S. 2010. The Black Death. New York: Simon & Schuster.Google Scholar
Grainger, I., Hawkins, D., Cowal, L. & Mikulski, R.. 2008. The Black Death cemetery, East Smithfield, London (Museum of London Archaeology Service Monograph 43). London: Museum of London.Google Scholar
Haensch, S. et al. 2010. Distinct clones of Yersinia pestis caused the Black Death. PLoS Pathogens 6: e1001134. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1001134CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hatcher, J. 2008. The Black Death: the intimate story of a village in crisis, 1345–1350. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.Google Scholar
Horrox, R. 1994. The Black Death. Manchester: Manchester University Press. https://doi.org/10.7765/MMSO.34985CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huggon, M. 2018. Medieval medicine, public health, and the medieval hospital, in Gerrard, C. & Gutiérrez, A. (ed.) The Oxford handbook of later medieval archaeology in Britain: 836–55. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kacki, S. 2016. Influence de l’état sanitaire des populations anciennes sur la mortalité en temps de peste: contribution à la paléoépidémiologie. Unpublished PhD dissertation, Université de Bordeaux.Google Scholar
Kacki, S., Rahalison, L., Rajerison, M., Ferroglio, E. & Bianucci, R.. 2011. Black Death in the rural cemetery of Saint-Laurent-de-la-Cabrerisse (Aude-Languedoc, southern France, fourteenth century): immunological evidence. Journal of Archaeological Science 38: 581–87. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2010.10.012CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lovejoy, C.O., Meidl, R.S., Pryszbeck, T.R. & Mensford, R.. 1985. Chronological metamorphosis of the auricular surface of the ilium: a new method for the determination of skeletal age at death. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 68: 15–28. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.1330680103CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lügert, S., Heinrich, D. & Päffgen, B.. 2002. Archäologische Untersuchungen der Massenbestattungen am Heiligen-Geist-Hospital zu Lübeck. Auswertung der Befunde und Funde. Lübecker Schriften zur Archäologie und Kulturgeschichte 26: 139–244.Google Scholar
McIntyre, A.B.R. et al. 2017. Comprehensive benchmarking and ensemble approaches for metagenomic classifiers. Genome Biology 18: 182. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13059-017-1299-7CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Meyer, M. & Kircher, M.. 2010. Illumina sequencing library preparation for highly multiplexed target capture and sequencing. Cold Spring Harbor Protocols 6: pdb.prot5448. https://doi.org/10.1101/pdb.prot5448Google Scholar
Miles, A. 1962. Assessment of the age of a population of Anglo-Saxons from their dentition. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine 55: 881–86. https://doi.org/10.1177/003591576205501019CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moorrees, C.F.A., Fanning, E.A. & Hunt, E.E.. 1963. Age variation of formation stages for ten permanent teeth. Journal of Dental Research 42: 1490–502. https://doi.org/10.1177/00220345630420062701CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nilsson Stutz, L. & Larsson, L.. 2016. Disturbing the dead: archaeothanatological analysis of the Stone Age burials at Zvejnieki, Latvia. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 10: 715–24. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2016.06.034CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Page, W. (ed.). 1906. A history of the County of Lincoln: volume 2. London: H.M. Stationery Office.Google Scholar
Pfizenmaier, S. 2016. Charterhouse Square: Black Death cemetery and Carthusian monastery, meat market and suburb (Crossrail Archaeology Series 7). London: Museum of London.Google Scholar
Prechel, M. 1996. Anthropologische Untersuchungen der Skelettreste aus einem Pestmassengrab am Heiligen-Geist-Hospital zu Lübeck. Lübecker Schriften zur Archäologie und Kulturgeschichte 24: 323–39.Google Scholar
Réveillas, H. 2010. Les hôpitaux et leurs morts dans le nord-est de la France du Moyen Âge à l’époque moderne. Approche archéo-anthropologique des cimetières des établissements hospitaliers. Unpublished PhD dissertation, Université Michel de Montaigne Bordeaux.Google Scholar
Roberts, D.L. 1984. John Thorpe's drawings for Thornton College, the house of Sir Vincent Skinner. Lincolnshire History and Archaeology 19: 57–64.Google Scholar
Scheuer, L. & Black, S.. 2000. Developmental juvenile osteology. London: Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-012624000-9/50004-6Google Scholar
Scheuer, J.L., Musgrave, J.H. & Evans, S.P.. 1980. The estimation of late foetal and perinatal age from limb bone length by linear and logarithmic regression. Annals of Human Biology 7: 257–65. https://doi.org/10.1080/03014468000004301CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schuenemann, V.J. et al. 2011. Targeted enrichment of ancient pathogens yielding the pPCP1 plasmid of Yersinia pestis from victims of the Black Death. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 108: 746–52. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1105107108CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Spyrou, M.A. et al. 2016. Historical Y. pestis genomes reveal the European Black Death as the source of ancient and modern plague pandemics. Cell Host & Microbe 19: 874–81. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chom.2016.05.012CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stone, R. & Appleton-Fox, N.. 1996. A view from Hereford's past: a report on the archaeological excavation of Hereford Cathedral Close in 1993. Little Logaston: Logaston Press.Google Scholar
Tran, T.-N.-N., Forestier, C.L., Drancourt, M., Raoult, D. & Aboudharam, G.. 2011. Brief communication: co-detection of Bartonella quintana and Yersinia pestis in an eleventh–fifteenth century burial site in Bondy, France. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 145: 489–94. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.21510CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vaxelaire, L. 2002. Besançon: un point sur les fouilles de l’îlot Paris. Archéopages 6: 18–23.Google Scholar
Venables, E. (ed.). 1891. Chronicon Abbatiae de Parco Ludae: the chronicle of Louth Park Abbey. Horncastle: Lincolnshire Record Society.Google Scholar
Wagner, D.M. et al. 2014. Yersinia pestis and the plague of Justinian 541–543 AD: a genomic analysis. The Lancet Infectious Diseases 14: 319–26. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(13)70323-2CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wiechmann, I., Harbeck, M. & Grupe, G.. 2010. Yersinia pestis DNA sequences in late medieval skeletal finds, Bavaria. Emerging Infectious Diseases 16: 1806–807. https://doi.org/10.3201/eid1611.100598CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Supplementary material: PDF

Willmott et al. supplementary material

Willmott et al. supplementary material

Download Willmott et al. supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 1 MB
6
Cited by

Save article to Kindle

To save this article to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

A Black Death mass grave at Thornton Abbey: the discovery and examination of a fourteenth-century rural catastrophe
Available formats
×

Save article to Dropbox

To save this article to your Dropbox account, please select one or more formats and confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you used this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your Dropbox account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

A Black Death mass grave at Thornton Abbey: the discovery and examination of a fourteenth-century rural catastrophe
Available formats
×

Save article to Google Drive

To save this article to your Google Drive account, please select one or more formats and confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you used this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your Google Drive account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

A Black Death mass grave at Thornton Abbey: the discovery and examination of a fourteenth-century rural catastrophe
Available formats
×
×

Reply to: Submit a response

Please enter your response.

Your details

Please enter a valid email address.

Conflicting interests

Do you have any conflicting interests? *