Archaeological news about the Archaeology of Later Medieval Europe from the Archaeology in Europe web site

Sunday 29 May 2016

'Eye-watering' scale of Black Death's impact on England revealed


Thousands of volunteers have helped to uncover the full and devastating extent of the population collapse caused by the epidemic

Praying for relief from the bubonic plague or Black Death Hulton hh3748.jpg Photograph: Hulton Getty

Scraps of broken pottery from test pits dug by thousands of members of the public have revealed the devastating impact of the Black Death in England, not just in the years 1346 to 1351 when the epidemic ripped Europe apart, but for decades or even centuries afterwards.
The quantity of sherds of everyday domestic pottery - the most common of archaeological finds - is a good indicator of the human population because of its widespread daily use, and the ease with which it can be broken and thrown away. By digging standard-sized test pits, then counting and comparing the broken pottery by number and weight from different date levels, a pattern emerges of humans living on a particular site.
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Saturday 14 May 2016

A kitchen story, a quarry, bones and gaming pieces: These medieval finds have been found at a Suffolk school


A school site in an 11th century road system in Suffolk has been excavated for medieval remains ahead of the creation of a new classroom and kitchen. The first cooking there, though, might actually have happened during the 14th century, according to the most unusual of the discoveries made during the dig: a small flint and mortar building which is thought to have been a kitchen or cold store.

Any fires during cooking wouldn’t have affected the main house, with the kitchen building set some distance from the street frontage and houses. Above ground, it would have been constructed of timber with a tiled floor and roof.

Bury St Edmunds’s Abbot set up the roads at the core of the old town, where a large medieval market thrived. Pilgrims to the abbey made the area an important and wealthy regional centre.


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