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A friar crushed by a cart, another victim of a bandit attack: it sounds like the plot of a medieval mystery. But according to new research, these are some of the possible misfortunes that have happened to them in centuries past.
An analysis of the bones of 314 people aged 12 and over, dating from around 1100 to 1530, and found at three different sites in Cambridge, reveals that bone fractures were common among those buried in a parish cemetery, where many common workers would have been put to rest. But the team also found evidence of horrific injuries among those buried in an Augustinian convent, suggesting that the clergy were not protected from violent events.
“Medieval life was difficult for everyone,” said Dr. Jenna Dittmar, lead author of the study from the University of Cambridge.
Writing in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, Dittmar and his colleagues report how they analyzed previously excavated medieval bones dating from the dissolution of monasteries by Henry VIII. While he said that not all the bones at the three sites have been excavated and analyzed, those examined so far provide information on different spheres of society.
“[Our results] we are going to be quite representative because we have a parish cemetery, we have a hospital and we also have an Augustinian convent, ”he said.
The team found that bone fractures were more common among those buried in the parish cemetery, and 44% of the skeletons analyzed showed signs of such damage compared to 32% of those buried in the convent. Multiple fractures were also more common among those buried in the parish cemetery.
“The people who were buried in the Todos los Santos parish cemetery would have led really hard lives,” Dittmar said, noting that many were ordinary people who would have held manual jobs, from farm jobs to construction workers. On the contrary, those buried in the convent would have led a clerical life or were rich benefactors.
While these injuries were more common among men, some women also showed them. “[One] The poor woman had her jaw broken at some point in her life, and she healed … but she also had other injuries, such as broken ribs and [a] foot, ”Dittmar said, though he said it’s unclear if the injuries were due to an event. While the jaw fracture could come from a fall, there are other possibilities, Dittmar said: In modern times, women generally suffer from jaw fractures as a result of domestic violence.
Only 27% of the people excavated at the Hospital de San Juan Evangelista had evidence of bone fractures, although one man appeared to have fractured his knee in a fall.
“People would assume that a hospital is a place where sick or poor or sick people would go, and they would be expected to have more fractures, which turned out not to be the case,” Dittmar said.
Dittmar said the hospital focused more on pastoral care. “The concept of a medieval hospital takes a bit of getting used to in modern times,” he said, noting that many people in the hospital would have been poor, elderly and chronically ill with diseases like tuberculosis.
Another surprise, Dittmar said, was that there was no evidence of weapons-related injuries, healed or not, among the dead, even though wars were common during medieval times.
But that didn’t mean the violence was unknown: in fact, the team reports that the remains of a friar who survived what Dittmar said may have been, among other explanations, a bandit attack, with signs that he was beaten in the head with a blunt object.
“He could have hit his head on something,” Dittmar said. “[But] He also has a broken arm, which is a defensive injury, thus suggesting that he raised his arm to protect himself. “
Another friar was not so lucky: his skeleton showed a broken neck and legs, with a possibility that he was run over by a cart.
“The injuries he has are very similar to what people experience when they are hit by the car, almost at the level of the thigh,” Dittmar said. “We think it is safe to say that he probably died as a result of any type of serious accident in which he was involved.”
