Cambridge University archaeologists have deduced the "biographies" of medieval commoners of the city using scientific data acquired through the examination of the residents' bones, which enabled them to "stitch together" vivid narratives surrounding the lives of impoverished people between the 12th century and the 15th century, especially their lives after the spread of the Black Death.
Starting in 2010, Scientists collectively examined the skeletons of over 400 adults and children who were buried at a site in Cambridge, where the St. John the Evangelist medieval hospital was believed to have operated at the time. Using the acquired data, the researchers were even able to visually "reconstruct" the outward appearances of these individuals, shown through illustrations.
According to a statement to CNN, John Robb, a Cambridge University professor, termed the technique the research team used as "osteobiography," where the individuals' DNA, diets, bodily trauma, and affairs were inspected in order to peer into these ancient people's lives.
The researchers eventually focused on 16 specific persons comprising everyday townsfolk, scholars, merchants, and even friars, examining up to 50 of their characteristics which allowed the team to build the most comprehensively rich datasets that were ever compiled for medieval England.
Life in Medieval Cambridge After the Bubonic Plague
In a newly launched website for the research project "After the Plague," the biographies of the individuals, characterized through pseudonyms, are made available. The research paper itself is published in the Cambridge University Press journal called "Antiquity."
One of the individuals the project identified was a thickset man with hair on the darker side whom the researchers dubbed "Wat." The man was speculated to have had a relatively good diet and was even able to endure repeated waves of the Black Death before succumbing to cancer at around 60 years old.
During the medieval period between 1348 to 1349, people catching the bubonic plague in Cambridge was commonplace, with over 40% to 60% of its residents perishing due to the disease. At the time, "Wat" lived among other people suffering from poverty inside the charitable walls of the St. John hospital which provided a sort of "medieval benefits system" to these marginalized individuals.
"A few of the luckier poor people got to bed and board in the hospital for life. Selection criteria would have been a mix of material want, local politics, and spiritual merit," the professor explained.
In another case, an individual dubbed as "Christiana" was deduced to have been one of the three few people who came from a faraway place to live in Cambridge. Analyzing her bones, she was revealed to have come from as far as Norway, although the researchers are unsure as to why she came to the city.
The main theory is that she only planned a short visit in order to trade in the annual Stourbridge Fair held on the outskirts of the city, alongside her family who are also merchants. Data suggests that "Christiana" may have died during that visit due to an infection that rapidly spread throughout her body.
Although the hospital doesn't take short-term residents as patients, Christiana was buried in the site's cemetery as a form of charitable act.
