The Calamitous Fourteenth Century and Its Influence on the People: A Case Study from Ypres, Belgium

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Integrating Isotope Analyses: The State of Play and Future Directions" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

During the fourteenth century in Europe, challenges like climate change, crop failures, and the plague affected the people significantly. Such events bore great consequences for people’s health and their everyday lives forcing them to adapt. The inhabitants of Ypres, present-day Belgium, were no exception. During the high medieval period (eleventh–thirteenth centuries), the city expanded into one of the largest in northwestern Europe. Yet, during the fourteenth century, natural disasters and sociopolitical unrest resulted in a strong population decline and lifestyle changes. Multi-isotope analyses on human remains document human past and provide information on people’s health, movements, and social interactions. However, as historical sources are not always available or difficult to interpret, connecting isotope data to historical events remains challenging. How to link information from isotopes to other disciplines such as environmental, medical, or archaeological studies, and how to improve future studies? Over 1,500 multi-isotope datapoints obtained from 185 humans and 52 animals from medieval Ypres are discussed in their historiographical context. Their implications are not only relevant for the medieval population of Ypres but also for isotope analyses studies in general.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)   •
• Integrating Isotope Analyses: The State of Play and Future Directions

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39930.0