UK - 'Black Death pit' unearthed by Crossrail project

[dipsydoodle]

Excavations for London's Crossrail project have unearthed bodies believed to date from the time of the Black Death.

A burial ground was known to be in an area outside the City of London, but its exact location remained a mystery.

Thirteen bodies have been found so far in the 5.5m-wide shaft at the edge of Charterhouse Square, alongside pottery dated to the mid-14th Century.

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DNA taken from the skeletons may also help chart the development and spread of the bacterium that caused the plague that became known as the Black Death.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21784141

[xchrom]

1. wow/ nt

[dipsydoodle]

2. I read long ways back

that there are parts of Knightsbridge , where Harrods is for example to the west of the City , which can never be re-developed because deep foundations would disturb huge plague pits.

[xchrom]

3. it's hard to wrap the brain around that.

harrod's is a BIG building.

[dipsydoodle]

4. I mentioned Harrods

only for the purpose of identifying Knightsbridge for those unaware. You are aware.

Back in the '80 when my wife was alive we frequently went down to H.A. Rods , as the Aussies call it ,to shop around and munch BLT's Saturdays morning. Harrods isn't more expensive for routine stuff than other stores - just got a better selection.

[xchrom]

5. the food area there is to die for.

i always stop for a sandwich -- and to pick up some stilton.

[dipsydoodle]

7. Why do you think Julian Assange Parker himself round the corner

btw - 17 December 1983 was a Saturday and despite my moaning my wife insisted she wanted Xmas tree lights from there. After the obligatory BLT's I left before Morag to make sure I didn't get a parking ticket. She left via the Hans Place exit 20 minutes later and we got home about 30 minutes after that. This is what we saw on the news when we walked in the door.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrods_bombing She'd walked past the bomb. Timing as they say is everything.

[xchrom]

8. !

[dotymed]

6. I hope that the "black death" is not communicable still.

It would ("in their minds&quot be a great biological weapon.
I hate to sound like a downer, I just don't trust the MIC from experience.

[dipsydoodle]

9. Might be up to 50,000 buried there !

Rail dig may have found London's lost "Black Death" graves.

(Reuters) - Archaeologists said on Friday they had found a graveyard during excavations for a rail project in London which might hold the remains of some 50,000 people killed by the "Black Death" plague more than 650 years ago.

Thirteen skeletons laid out in two neat rows were discovered 2.5 metres (8 feet) below the road in the Farringdon area of central London by researchers working on the 16 billion pound Crossrail project.

Historical records had indicated the area, described as a "no man's land", had once housed a hastily established cemetery for victims of the bubonic plague which killed about the third of England's population following its outbreak in 1348.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/03/15/uk-britain-blackdeath-idUKBRE92E0B320130315

[freshwest]

11. Does anyone seriously consider it to be a public health hazard after all these years? Eek if so...

[dipsydoodle]

12. Despite various theories

nobody knows exactly the Black Death was and as such I guess they're just being careful. There have for examples been deaths from opening up sarcophages in the past.

[freshwest]

13. I saw this idea used on a short-lived SciFi channel series, 'Prey.' Hazmat suits everywhere.

The Black Death is Bubonic Plague, and I believe it can be treated with modern anti-biotics. But if not treated, a fast and awful death according to this report from New Mexico in 2011:

...The bubonic plague became known as the Black Death when it swept through Europe in the 14th century, killing 75million people.

Although it is now rare, there are still between 10 to 15 cases in the U.S. each year, half of which are in New Mexico.

It is caused by the Yersinia pestis bacteria, carried by fleas.

Symptoms of bubonic plague appear suddenly, between two and five days after infection.

They include:

* Chills, malaise, high fever
* Muscle pain, severe headache, seizures
* Smooth, painful lymph gland swelling called a bubo.
* It is commonly found in the groin, but may occur in the armpits or neck, most often at the site of the initial infection (bite or scratch)

The disease can be cured if the patient is treated with antibiotics within 24 hours of infection...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1385127/Man-diagnosed-bubonic-plague-Americas-case-year.html

[dipsydoodle]

14. Yes but there are also theories

that it was a hemoragic fever caused by an ebola virus strain. I suppose it could've coincided with bubonic plague carried by rat fleas.

[freshwest]

15. Whatever it was, the Black Death changed Europe dramatically.

[dipsydoodle]

16. Killed at least a third of the population of Europe.

I recall reading that it changed labour practises due to the shortage of labour it caused - especially farm labour.

[freshwest]

17. Shortage of labor, changes in land ownership, and the separation of the classes, then the guilds.

It's been years since I read about it, but have seen The History Channel episodes (before they went nuts) and a lot of BBC programmes about the era. It laid the basis of part of our modern life with the emphasis on labor, as you say.

I've read that the 'Little Ice Age' stratified European society more, even though this article doesn't delve into that. I read of knights freezing to death on horseback. The horses were moving, so they survived, but - wow.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Ice_Age

All these events through time - nothing lasts, except the RCC, but it morphed back and forth as well. I haven't seen if there was a climate component to the plague years. My family left London for Amsterdam and then to the colonies a few years before the plague that felled tens of thousands hit there.

[muriel_volestrangler]

18. They've done DNA tests which shows it was bubonic plague

From AD 1347 to AD 1353, the Black Death killed tens of millions of people in Europe, leaving misery and devastation in its wake, with successive epidemics ravaging the continent until the 18th century. The etiology of this disease has remained highly controversial, ranging from claims based on genetics and the historical descriptions of symptoms that it was caused by Yersinia pestis to conclusions that it must have been caused by other pathogens. It has also been disputed whether plague had the same etiology in northern and southern Europe. Here we identified DNA and protein signatures specific for Y. pestis in human skeletons from mass graves in northern, central and southern Europe that were associated archaeologically with the Black Death and subsequent resurgences. We confirm that Y. pestis caused the Black Death and later epidemics on the entire European continent over the course of four centuries. Furthermore, on the basis of 17 single nucleotide polymorphisms plus the absence of a deletion in glpD gene, our aDNA results identified two previously unknown but related clades of Y. pestis associated with distinct medieval mass graves. These findings suggest that plague was imported to Europe on two or more occasions, each following a distinct route. These two clades are ancestral to modern isolates of Y. pestis biovars Orientalis and Medievalis. Our results clarify the etiology of the Black Death and provide a paradigm for a detailed historical reconstruction of the infection routes followed by this disease.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2951374/

Technological advances in DNA recovery and sequencing have drastically expanded the scope of genetic analyses of ancient specimens to the extent that full genomic investigations are now feasible and are quickly becoming standard1. This trend has important implications for infectious disease research because genomic data from ancient microbes may help to elucidate mechanisms of pathogen evolution and adaptation for emerging and re-emerging infections. Here we report a reconstructed ancient genome of Yersinia pestis at 30-fold average coverage from Black Death victims securely dated to episodes of pestilence-associated mortality in London, England, 1348–1350. Genetic architecture and phylogenetic analysis indicate that the ancient organism is ancestral to most extant strains and sits very close to the ancestral node of all Y. pestis commonly associated with human infection. Temporal estimates suggest that the Black Death of 1347–1351 was the main historical event responsible for the introduction and widespread dissemination of the ancestor to all currently circulating Y. pestis strains pathogenic to humans, and further indicates that contemporary Y. pestis epidemics have their origins in the medieval era. Comparisons against modern genomes reveal no unique derived positions in the medieval organism, indicating that the perceived increased virulence of the disease during the Black Death may not have been due to bacterial phenotype. These findings support the notion that factors other than microbial genetics, such as environment, vector dynamics and host susceptibility, should be at the forefront of epidemiological discussions regarding emerging Y. pestis infections.

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v478/n7370/full/nature10549.html

[formercia]

10. ............