Digging up the plague: A diachronic comparison of aDNA confirmed plague burials and associated burial customs in Germany

Gutsmiedl-Schümann, Doris; Päffgen, Bernd; Schwarzberg, Heiner; Keller, Marcel; Rott, Andreas; Harbeck, Michaela

doi:10.1515/pz-2017-0018

Cited by 10 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 8 publications

(8 reference statements)

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“…Moreover, some of the anthropological analyses published until 2016 were still preliminary (eg. Manching Pichl, for which data has become available only recently 69 , and Alghero, for which the only data for sex and age determination were those produced on the field, before cleaning the skeletons). Secondly, taphonomic factors might have compromised the preservation of the most fragile remains, especially skeletons of small children and female individuals, with unpredictable effects on the ratio between sexes and between age classes.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A critical review of anthropological studies on skeletons from European plague pits of different epochs

Bramanti

Zedda

Rinaldo

et al. 2018

Sci Rep

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In historical times, plague epidemics intermittently ravaged Europe for more than 1,400 years, and still represent a threat in many countries all over the world. A debate is ongoing about the past plague, if it killed randomly in a population or discriminated among persons on the basis of their biological features. To address questions of plague lethality, we reviewed a large number of anthropological studies published in the last twenty years on victims of the past pestilences in Europe. In particular, we focused on data concerning demography (age at death and sex determination), and health status (skeletal biomarkers). We applied to these data a model system based on Multiple Linear Regression, which aimed to discern among possible predictors of sex-selective plague lethality in entire populations, in different periods and regions. Based on available data, we lack evidence for general trends of association between biological features. Differences in sex ratio are more likely due to the original population compositions or to distinct cultural behaviours of the two genders. We concluded that generalizations on biological evidence are not feasible for ancient plagues if we exclude that the infection possibly killed primarily persons between 5–10 and 20–35 years of age.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A critical review of anthropological studies on skeletons from European plague pits of different epochs

Bramanti

Zedda

Rinaldo

et al. 2018

Sci Rep

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“…If the plague was here , it must have been in many other places …” (p. 230). But why should the identification of the plague in a handful of teeth (to date 11 people at most) among a tiny preselected group (of 39 remains; summary in Gutsmiedl‐Schümann et al, , p. 409) in one small rural area necessarily imply that it killed half the empire's population and spread into areas thousands of kilometers away? With a handful of leaves he maps a forest.…”

Section: Plagued By Doubt? the Justinianic Pandemic Under Scrutinymentioning

confidence: 99%

Plagues, climate change, and the end of an empire: A response to Kyle Harper's The Fate of Rome (3): Disease, agency, and collapse

et al. 2018

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This is the last of a three‐part review of Kyle Harper's The Fate of Rome. Here, we scrutinize Harper's treatment of the Justinianic Plague, demonstrating how he crafts a convincing narrative based on rhetorical flourishes but little evidence. We call further attention to several internal contradictions within the chapter and misinterpretations of evidence. We conclude this series of articles with a reflection on Harper's deterministic approach to environmental history. While the environment appears everywhere, agency (people: society and culture) is mostly absent. We finish by emphasizing the need to develop more nuanced causal explanations for complex historical processes and suggest that future attempts to bring together such wide‐ranging material be done within interdisciplinary research teams.

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“…These methods are most effective when used across an entire burial population. 103 For example at Aschheim, due to the demographic composition of the deceased, combined with the fact that there are no signs of trauma indicating violent death, disease was already considered as a viable interpretation to the high number of multiple burials even before Y. pestis was observed genetically. The concentration of these multiple burials and the observed cases in certain datable phases (mid-to late-sixth cent.)…”

Section: Putting Late Antique Plague Burials In Their Socio-cultural ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Burial Archaeology and the First Plague Pandemic

Kay

Koncz²,

Wilson³

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Archaeological evidence from funerary contexts is largely ignored in current scholarship on first-pandemic plague, despite the important information that burials and cemeteries can provide about how plague might have affected societies. Skeletal (mainly dental) remains are used in the paleogenomic hunt for victims of plague (Yersinia pestis), but important contextual information is to be gained from plague-positive graves through bioarchaeological study of the complete skeleton and analysis of their funerary contexts, both of which are glaringly absent. We argue that future scholarship on the First Plague Pandemic must bring burial archaeology to the growing body of evidence, and archaeologists themselves must lead or be involved in this research. We present three ways in which burial archaeology can be used effectively to study the impact of first-pandemic plague on individuals and communities: by reconsidering whether we should be looking for an archaeology of “crisis” for this disease event, by evaluating burial archaeology (especially multiple burials) in its proper sociocultural context, and by examining bioarchaeological evidence from entire cemeteries where plague genomes are recovered in any quantity. We conclude by offering an example of how such archaeological evidence can be incorporated into interdisciplinary plague studies.

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Digging up the plague: A diachronic comparison of aDNA confirmed plague burials and associated burial customs in Germany

Cited by 10 publications

References 8 publications

A critical review of anthropological studies on skeletons from European plague pits of different epochs

A critical review of anthropological studies on skeletons from European plague pits of different epochs

Plagues, climate change, and the end of an empire: A response to Kyle Harper's The Fate of Rome (3): Disease, agency, and collapse

Burial Archaeology and the First Plague Pandemic

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