The Black Death (1347–1352 ce) is the most renowned pandemic in human history, believed by many to have killed half of Europe’s population. However, despite advances in ancient DNA research that conclusively identified the pandemic’s causative agent (bacterium Yersinia pestis), our knowledge of the Black Death remains limited, based primarily on qualitative remarks in medieval written sources available for some areas of Western Europe. Here, we remedy this situation by applying a pioneering new approach, ‘big data palaeoecology’, which, starting from palynological data, evaluates the scale of the Black Death’s mortality on a regional scale across Europe. We collected pollen data on landscape change from 261 radiocarbon-dated coring sites (lakes and wetlands) located across 19 modern-day European countries. We used two independent methods of analysis to evaluate whether the changes we see in the landscape at the time of the Black Death agree with the hypothesis that a large portion of the population, upwards of half, died within a few years in the 21 historical regions we studied. While we can confirm that the Black Death had a devastating impact in some regions, we found that it had negligible or no impact in others. These inter-regional differences in the Black Death’s mortality across Europe demonstrate the significance of cultural, ecological, economic, societal and climatic factors that mediated the dissemination and impact of the disease. The complex interplay of these factors, along with the historical ecology of plague, should be a focus of future research on historical pandemics.

We present the first study employing Bayesian modelling of isotopic measurements on dentine increments (five human upper first molars) to address Romano‐British infant feeding practices at Bainesse (UK). The stable carbon and nitrogen isotope results modelled to 6‐month intervals with novel OsteoBioR software revealed some common patterns, with weaning not starting before the age of 6 months and higher animal protein consumption after the age of seven. The latter possibly indicated a ‘survival’ threshold, evidenced by historical sources and osteological data, hence marking a rise in social status of children. The important role of Bainesse as commercial hub in relation to the fort of Cataractonium does not exclude a priori the possibility that medical treatises and Roman culture were known at the site. However, our results also showed significant intra‐individual differences with weaning cessation taking place between 2 and 5 years, suggesting that these were followed only partially and other aspects influenced family decisions on infant feeding practices in Bainesse.

Here we present the Compendium Isotoporum Medii Aevi (CIMA), an open-access database gathering more than 50,000 isotopic measurements for bioarchaeological samples located within Europe and its margins, and dating between 500 and 1500 CE. This multi-isotope (δ13C, δ15N, δ34S, δ18O, and 87Sr/86Sr) archive of measurements on human, animal, and plant archaeological remains also includes a variety of supporting information that offer, for instance, a taxonomic characterization of the samples, their location, and chronology, in addition to data on social, religious, and political contexts. Such a dataset can be used to identify data gaps for future research and to address multiple research questions, including those related with studies on medieval human lifeways (i.e. human subsistence, spatial mobility), characterization of paleo-environmental and -climatic conditions, and on plant and animal agricultural management practices. Brief examples of such applications are given here and we also discuss how the integration of large volumes of isotopic data with other types of archaeological and historical data can improve our knowledge of medieval Europe.