From burial grounds to the interpretation of past epidemics: Diagnostic approach and new insight on funerary practices

Summary

mass graves. Such discoveries testify to an abnormally high death rate linked to a specific event, such as wars or epidemics. Two research lines are fundamental to ascertain the nature of such crises: biological analysis of the exhumed skeletons (age, sex, and paleopathology), and research of DNA of the ancient pathogens which may have caused the deaths. Besides, these burial sites provide an insight of the impact of such a high mortality on funeral customs. At present, enough data is available, especially on plague, to develop an interdisciplinary strategy in order to interpret accurately mortality crises of the past. Therefore, we propose a synthesis on this topic based on several European burial sites related to epidemics. Through the analysis of archaeological data, our aim is to better understand the attitude of ancient societies toward epidemic death, and to highlight discrepancies between the archaeological evidences and both the textual and iconographic sources that describe these peculiar events.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

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