After the plague: health and history in medieval Cambridge (360G-Wellcome-200368_Z_15_Z)

This collaborative project explores the historical effects of major health events such as epidemics. It combines multiple methods (archaeology, history, osteoarchaeology, isotopic and genetic studies of both human and pathogen aDNA) to study the people of medieval Cambridge. It uses the recently excavated large sample of urban poor people from the Hospital of St. John (AD 1200-1500), complemented by comparative samples from other medieval social contexts and other historical periods. The results will be analysed both statistically and biographically. A proximate goal is to build a nuanced picture of health, lifestyle and activity in medieval England, one grounded in direct examination of human bodies themselves. The overall goal, however, is to understand the biosocial effects of the Black Death of 1348-1350, an epidemic of bubonic plague which decimated Europe. By comparing samples from before and after the epidemic for a wide range of social and biological indicators, this research will reveal how the plague changed human well-being, activity, mobility, health and the genetic constitution of Europe.