Product Description
The East Smithfield Black Death cemetery was excavated in 1986-8 as part of the Royal Mint site. Founded in 1348/9, it was one of two emergency burial grounds established when the Black Death came to London. The work reported here represents the only large-scale excavation and post-excavation analysis of a proven Black Death cemetery in this country and is indisputably of international importance in terms of its archaeology and the human bone assemblage derived from the c.759 burials found.Two distinct burial areas were established, both using a combination of well-ordered individual graves and mass burial trenches. The burial practices and the human bone assemblage are analysed and discussed in relation to Black Death studies in London and elsewhere. The impact of the plague on medieval London and the importance of this cemetery, and that at West Smithfield, in the city's attempts to cope with the disaster are both assessed. The earlier history of the site and the influence of the Black Death cemetery on the subsequent use of the site are also examined, particularly its effect on the later foundation and layout of the Cistercian abbey of St Mary Graces.
About the Author
by Ian Grainger, Duncan Hawkins, Lynne Cowal and Richard Mikulski
