Medieval skeletons show social inequality ‘recorded on the legs’

Human remains from Cambridge, England, dating from ten centuries, reveal social inequalities that are etched on the legs of the inhabitants.

Researchers studied the skeletons of 314 people who lived between the 10th and 14th centuries and carefully cataloged each fracture and fracture to correlate social strata with the risk of skeletal trauma. The results, published Monday in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, contribute to the understanding of economic and physical hardship in medieval Europe – and demonstrate once again how much the archaeological record can tell us about the daily lives of our ancestors.

Last year, for example, archaeologists analyzed skeletons of two men who presumably died while fleeing the deadly eruption of Mount Vesuvius in Pompeii nearly 2,000 years ago. The youngest of the men compressed spinal discs, which led archaeologists to suspect he was doing handicrafts as a slave.

The bones in the Cambridge study come from three different cemeteries that contain remains of residents in the social spectrum: a cemetery for working poor people; a charity hospital housing the sick and needy; and an Augustinian greenhouse that housed the remains of wealthy donors along with clergy. The workers buried in the cemetery, called All Saints Castle, showed the most trauma, probably due to injuries they sustained in agriculture and construction. These lands worked with heavy plows pulled by horses or oxen, dragging stone blocks and wooden beams through the city.

“These were people who worked long hours on heavy manual labor. In the city, people worked on trades such as stone masonry and blacksmithing, or as general laborers,” said Jenna Dittmar, study leader at Cambridge University’s Department of Archeology. . said in a statement. “Outside the city, many worked in the field until dawn and did bone care or herding cattle.”

By the 13th century, Cambridge was an economically prosperous market town and inland river port of which the vast majority of its inhabitants were laborers. Using X-ray analysis, Dittmar and other researchers found that 44% of the working people they studied had bone fractures, compared with 32% of those buried and 27% of those buried by the hospital. Fractures were more common in male remains (40%) than females (26%) at all funerals, a finding consistent with previous research suggesting that medieval men have an increased risk of injury compared to medieval women.

But it was not just full-time workers who showed signs of significant physical trauma. Although brethren of the day devoted most of their time to spiritual pursuits and study, they also undertook daily tasks to maintain their monasteries. One man outlined in the investigation, identified by his belt buckle and burial as a brother, showed complete fractures halfway in his hip bone, a serious injury that could have led to his death.

The researchers suspect a wagon accident. “Maybe a horse was haunted and he was hit by the wagon,” Dittmar said.

Not all fractures result from accidental injuries. The researchers observed skeletal injuries related to violence in about 4% of the population, including women and people from all social groups.

One brother showed defensive fractures on his arm and signs of blunt trauma to his skull. And a woman buried in the church grounds appears to be carrying signs of lifelong domestic abuse – several of her ribs were broken, as well as several vertebrae, her jaw and her foot.

“She had a lot of fractures, everyone healed right before her death,” Dittmar said. “It is very unusual for all of these injuries to occur as a result of a fall, for example. Today, the vast majority of broken jaws seen in women are caused by intimate partner violence.”

Collectively, the hundreds of skeletons tell a story of widespread hardship.

“Life was the hardest downstairs,” Dittmar said, “but the whole life was hard.”