Black Death Skeletons Unearthed
Source: news.discovery.com
Thirteen skeletons thought to be victims of the Black Death plague which swept Britain over 600 years ago have been dug up by workers on the £15 billion Crossrail project in London, archaeologists said Friday.
Up to 50,000 people may have been buried at the site in Charterhouse Square in Farringdon if it proves to be the location of a plague cemetery mentioned in ancient records.
The records refer to a burial ground in the Farringdon area that opened during the Black Death in 1348.
Over the past two weeks, the archaeologists have uncovered 13 skeletons in two carefully laid out rows 2.5 metres below the road that surrounds the gardens in Charterhouse Square.
"The depth of burials, the pottery found with the skeletons and the way the skeletons have been set out all point towards this being part of the 14th century emergency burial ground," said Jay Carver, Crossrail’s lead archaeologist.
"This is a highly significant discovery and at the moment we are left with many questions that we hope to answer," he said.
"We will be undertaking scientific tests on the skeletons over the coming months to establish their cause of death, whether they were plague victims from the 14th century or later London residents, how old they were and perhaps evidence of who they were," Carver added.
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