Beyond Plague Pits: Using Genetics to Identify Responses to Plague in Medieval Cambridgeshire

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European Journal of Archaeology 2021, page 1 of 23 This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

1,2 3 3 CRAIG CESSFORD ,CHRISTIANA L. SCHEIB ,MERIAM GUELLIL , 3 4 5 MARCEL KELLER ,CRAIG ALEXANDER ,SARAH A. INSKIP AND 6 JOHN E. ROBB 1McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, UK 2Cambridge Archaeological Unit, University of Cambridge, UK 3Institute of Genomics, University of Tartu, Estonia 4Independent researcher, Brescia, Italy 5School of Archaeology and Ancient History, University of Leicester, UK 6Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, UK

Ancient DNA from Yersinia pestis has been identified in skeletons at four urban burial grounds in Cambridge, England, and at a nearby rural cemetery. Dating to between AD 1349 and 1561, these represent individuals who died of plague during the second pandemic. Most come from normative individual burials, rather than mass graves. This pattern represents a major advance in archaeological knowledge, shifting focus away from a few exceptional discoveries of mass burials to what was normal practice in most medieval contexts. Detailed consideration of context allows the authors to identify a range of burial responses to the second pandemic within a single town and its hinterland. This permits the creation of a richer and more varied narrative than has previously been possible.

Keywords: plague, second plague pandemic, ancient DNA, burials, Cambridge

INTRODUCTION:WHERE ARE ALL THE mid-seventeenth century, with outbreaks PLAGUE DEAD? continuing until the early eighteenth century. The second pandemic, and the The second plague pandemic (as opposed Black Death in particular, continue to fas- to the first plague pandemic in the sixth– cinate the public, historians (Benedictow, eighth centuries AD) arrived in Europe in 2004; Green, 2015), and increasingly the middle of the fourteenth century, geneticists (Spyrou et al., 2019). The starting with the Black Death (AD 1346– impact of the plague on Cambridge in 1353) which killed around forty to sixty England was probably devastating. In per cent of the population. Frequent recur- 1365/1366, the bishop granted permission rences of the disease followed until the for the parishes of All Saints by the Castle

Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of European Association of Archaeologists doi:10.1017/eaa.2021.19 Manuscript received 10 July 2020, Downloaded fromaccepted https://www.cambridge.org/core 11 May 2021, revised 17. IP November address: 170.106.33.42 2020 , on 30 Sep 2021 at 06:43:02, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/eaa.2021.19 2 European Journal of Archaeology 2021

and St Giles to merge, as ‘the parishioners Death (Evans, 2002:28–29). For under- of All Saints are for the most part dead by standable reasons, genetic investigations of pestilence, and those that are alive are medieval plague have also focused on the gone to other parishes, the nave of All exceptional mass burials. Inadvertently and Saints is ruinous and the bones of dead unintentionally, the exceptional came to bodies are exposed to beasts’ (HMC, appear typical. To put it in stark figures: 1877: 299, folio 1026). between one and four million people died Plague kills rapidly, with a typical incuba- in England in the Black Death outbreak tion period of two to six days for bubonic alone, to say nothing of subsequent out- plague (Dennis et al., 1999: 43), followed by breaks, but probably no more than a few a further three to five days when fifty to tens of thousands were buried in mass ninety per cent of individuals with septicae- graves. Where are all the others and would mia from bubonic plague and no access to finding them change the direction of antibiotics die (Sexton & Stout, 2018). This research on historic epidemics? The aim of speed means that the disease leaves no this article is to consider some individuals visible traces on the skeleton, so plague from Cambridgeshire that, through a mass victims cannot be identified through osteo- screening of ancient DNA (aDNA), can be logical analysis. Archaeologists seeking to shown to have died of plague during the identify individuals who died of plague have second pandemic and the types of burial traditionally relied on contextual evidence, that they received. such as ‘emergency’ cemeteries that textual sources indicate were established specifically in response to plague outbreaks, or mass RESEARCHING THE PLAGUE IN MEDIEVAL burials. In Britain, these include several sites CAMBRIDGESHIRE in London: the East and West Smithfield Black Death cemeteries (Grainger et al., In researching the second pandemic, the 2008; Pfizenmaier, 2016) and later burials at key breakthrough has been biomolecular as the Cistercian Abbey of St Mary Graces the aDNA of Yersinia pestis, the bacterium (Grainger & Phillpotts, 2011)andNew that causes plague, has been recovered from Churchyard (Hartle, 2017)(Figure 1). human teeth. This is possible because, Outside London, there are fourteenth- when individuals develop septicaemia, century mass burials at Hereford Cathedral where bacteria enter the blood and spread (Stone & Appleton-Fox, 1996)and throughout the body, these will enter the Thornton Abbey (Willmott et al., 2020), blood vessels present in tooth pulp. Given and mid-seventeenth-century plague burials the high level of mortality once a plague at Leith in Scotland (Stoakley, 2019). victim develops septicaemia and the While historians and archaeologists physiological improbability of maintaining acknowledge that most people killed by a bacterial load in the blood upon survival, plague were buried individually in ordinary finding Y. pestis in a human tooth root cemeteries, these skeletons have previously almost certainly indicates that the person been almost impossible to recognize and died of plague. Thus, it is now possible to attention has thus focused on the excep- identify the skeletons of plague victims in a tional mass burials. In rare cases, as at the way that was previously impossible. Hull Augustinian Friary where coffins Attempts to identify Y. pestis associated were closely dated by dendrochronology, it with both the first and second pandemic has been possible to suggest that some initially focused on emergency cemeteries individual burials relate to the Black and mass burials (for recent summaries,

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Figure 1. Map of sites mentioned in the text and plan of parish cemeteries (red) and other religious institutions (blue) in Cambridge c. 1350. 1) All Saints; 2) Hospital of St John; 3) St Bene’t’s; 4) Augustinian Friary (plan by Vicki Herring for the ‘After the Plague’ project, adapted by Craig Cessford).

see Keller et al., 2019; Spyrou et al., with expected positive results and enables 2019). Work on prehistoric remains has research goals such as outlining the phylo- been rather different: skeletal material was genetic history of the pathogen. However, it initially sampled for human aDNA and offers only limited contributions to the only later screened for pathogen aDNA, social archaeology of medieval epidemics per with Y. pestis identified from burials that se. For that, a different approach is needed: were not particularly distinctive or unusual screening a variety of contexts, and particu- (Rasmussen et al., 2015). Concentrating larly apparently ordinary-looking burials, for initially on skeletons that are identifiable plague victims. from their archaeological context as prob- By the mid-fourteenth century, Cam- able plague victims is a logical first step. It bridge was a well-established town, con- allows the method to be tested on subjects taining a significant number of religious

and educational institutions. Its population intended to isolate the living, pest houses immediately before the Black Death was included, from at least 1603 onwards, the probably around 5800 inhabitants (Casson burials of some individuals who had died et al., 2020: 318). Although textual there. The location of the pest houses records amenable to statistical analysis do changed over time, with at least four sites not survive, the available evidence indi- known: Balls’s Folly (1574), Midsummer cates that Cambridge was affected in a Common (1593–1630), Jesus Green manner broadly similar to the rest of (1603–1647) and Coldham’s Common England. If some forty to sixty per cent of (1647–1666, retained until 1703). Most the estimated population died, that would burials continued to take place in parish be around 2300–3500 fatalities. In the cemeteries, with perhaps twenty per cent mid-fourteenth century, burial was permit- of burials in pest houses. ted at a significant number of locations in the town: seventeen parish churches, four friaries, a hospital, a nunnery, and two pri- METHODS ories. There is no evidence for the establishment of fourteenth-century emergency ‘After the Plague’ (http://www.aftertheplague. cemeteries; those who died of plague were com) is a multidisciplinary research project therefore presumably buried at their parish studying human remains from Cambridge, churches or other religious institutions as with a principal focus on the later medi- appropriate. eval period (1100–1500) but including Plague outbreaks continued intermit- material ranging from the Early Neolithic tently until 1665/1666. The frequency and to the Late Modern periods. This includes severity of these repeated outbreaks is palaeogenetic analysis of teeth to study impossible to assess accurately; it is however human and pathogen aDNA, including likely that most decades saw at least one data from five burial grounds that at least outbreak. These later outbreaks were less partly overlap with the second pandemic. severe than the initial Black Death. Some The burial grounds were selected to cover late fourteenth- to early sixteenth-century as wide a range of burial contexts as pos- outbreaks may have killed some ten to sible, the main limiting factor being the twenty per cent of the population, while availability of human skeletal remains. The later outbreaks with more reliable figures burial grounds include an urban parish killed up to five per cent (in 1574, 1630) cemetery, the cemetery and chapter house and twelve per cent (in 1665/1666) of the of an urban friary, an urban hospital ceme- population of Cambridge. Burial of plague tery, and a rural parish cemetery. None of victims continued to take place in parish these burial grounds was established in churches and other religious institutions, response to plague outbreaks and the ske- although the latter’s number changed over letons sampled were overwhelmingly from time, particularly with the acquisition of individual burials that follow the typical burial rights by some colleges from the rites of the period. Given their dates, it 1440s onwards and the Dissolution in 1538. was probable that some of the individuals From 1574 onwards, some individuals in these cemeteries died of plague, but infected with the plague were isolated and there was nothing to identify any particu- moved to ‘pest houses’, groups of timber lar burials as plague-related. In total, 191 structures within ditched enclosures skeletons from the five burial grounds located some distance from the town in were sampled and tested for human its surrounding fields. Although primarily and pathogen aDNA. In addition, four

skeletons from a mass burial in another Clopton (Figure 1, Tables 1–2). Two of urban parish cemetery and two associated the samples were subjected to further ana- with a pest house were also sampled. lysis and have been previously published Numbers of individuals in each cemetery (Spyrou et al., 2019). Another Cambridge likely to have died during the second pan- cemetery at the Hospital of St John appears demic were assessed utilizing textual to be free of plague burials. sources, stratigraphy, radiocarbon dating, Of the four skeletons tested from a and artefact typology. mid-fourteenth mass burial at St Bene’t’s This article focuses on presenting the parish cemetery, two gave positive results archaeological context of this research; and one gave a tentative identification. technical details of genetic results will be Two burials probably associated with six- published elsewhere. Next Generation teenth- to seventeenth-century pest houses Sequencing (NGS) data from ancient on Midsummer Common tested negative human tooth roots were screened bioinfor- for Y. pestis; these potentially represent matically for Y. pestis using one of two dif- false negatives. From these it is possible to ferent methods: the MEGAN alignment calculate the percentage of skeletons out of tool (MALT), post-processed within the those likely to date to second pandemic pathogen screening pipeline HOPS19 that tested Y. pestis positive or tentative (Hübler et al., 2019), and a kmer-based (Table 1). These results while interesting, approach using KRAKEN 2 (Wood et al., must be accompanied by a strong warning, 2019). The assessment of these shotgun- particularly with regard to differential approach NGS reads produced from aDNA preservation and availability, and libraries without uracil-DNA-glycosylase should not be simplistically interpreted as treatment revealed the potential presence mortality rates for the plague. of Y. pestis aDNA. These were genotyped, based on the inspection of their single nucleotide polymorphisms profiles. All Saints by the Castle Information on the various sites and skeletons discussed and on the radiocarbon All Saints by the Castle in Cambridge dating methodology are provided in the (henceforth All Saints) was a parochial online supplementary material. church founded in c. 940–1150 (Figure 1). It endured for between three and five centuries, before it was merged with another RESULTS parish in 1365/1366. Given that date, the merging of the parishes presumably does Overall, out of a total of 197 individuals not relate to the Black Death of 1348– screened, ten samples tested positive for Y. 1349, although this undoubtedly contribu- pestis, plus a further three possible instances ted to it, but to the next plague outbreak (likely to be positive but lacking enough in 1361–1362, which may have claimed data to definitely confirm the presence of the lives of ten to twenty per cent of the the pathogen). Eight positive and two ten- population. tative identifications came from single In total, forty-nine skeletons from the burials in normal parish cemeteries and cemetery were sampled for aDNA. It is religious establishments, including the estimated that twenty-two of these indivi- parish cemetery of All Saints by the Castle, duals may have died during the second both the cemetery and chapter house of the pandemic. Many of these individuals Augustinian Friary, and the rural parish of could also have died before the second

Table 1. Skeletons from burial grounds contemporary with the second pandemic in Cambridge 1349–1666 sampled for aDNA. Site Date of Y. No. No. likely to No. No. No. negative % positive/ pestis positive sampled date to positive tentative results from tentative of burials 1349–1666 burials those likely to believed to be date to second plague related pandemic

All Saints, 1349–1361/62 49 5–11 1 0 n/a 9–20 parish cemetery St Bene’t’s, 1349–1352/77 4 4 2 1 1 75 mass burial, parish cemetery Clopton, parish 1349–1561 17 11–17 3 2 n/a 29–45 cemetery Augustinian 1349 22 4–8 1 0 n/a 12–25 Friary, cemetery Augustinian 1450–1538 6 6 3 0 n/a 50 Friary, chapter house Hospital of St 1349–1511 97 47–57 0 0 n/a 0 John, cemetery Midsummer 1550–1666 2 2 0 0 2 0 Common, pest house Total 1349–1666 197 79–105 10 3 3 12–16

pandemic, so perhaps only some five to died in either the 1349 or 1361–1362 eleven individuals died in 1349–1365. outbreaks. The double burial of two Although there is no way to determine probably clothed individuals (143 and which specific skeletons these are, and the 156) face down in a single grave at All estimates are, admittedly, imprecise, Saints was the latest interment in the similar calculations have been carried out local stratigraphic sequence. These skele- for the other burial grounds. At All tons were not sampled for aDNA, as Saints, one skeleton (no. 82) tested posi- both skulls had been removed by later tive for Y. pestis aDNA (Figure 2; for truncation, but death from plague is details on this and other skeletons see plausible. Table 2). This was an extended supine All Saints was abandoned after the burial, with head to the west, in an earth- 1361–1362 outbreak; there is no evidence cut grave, that was typical of the graves in for later burials or that the site was used the cemetery. As such, Grave 82 acts as a for other purposes during the rest of the representative for all the individuals in second pandemic. This indicates that the Cambridge who died of plague and amalgamated parish community, based received a normal individual parochial only 200 m away at St Giles, did not burial, which may well have been most of retain and continue to use the burial the deceased. This individual could have ground, despite continued plague

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Table 2. Individuals who tested positive or tentative for Y. pestis aDNA, or where archaeological context indicates that they probably died of plague. Site Skeleton Result Date Sex Age at death Comment (years) ‒ eodPau isi eivlCmrdehr 7 Cambridgeshire Medieval in Pits Plague Beyond

. – https://doi.org/10.1017/eaa.2021.19 All Saints 82 Positive 1349 or 1361/62 M 46 59 Individual burial All Saints 143 Unsampled 1349 or 1361/62 M 36–45 Double burial, face down and probably clothed All Saints 156 Unsampled 1349 or 1361/62 M 26–35 Double burial, face down and probably clothed . IPaddress: St Bene’t’s 1605 Unsampled Prob. 1349 Unknown 18+ Multiple burial St Bene’t’s 1608 Positive Prob. 1349 F 18–25 Multiple burial St Bene’t’s 1609 Positive Prob. 1349 M 26–35 Multiple burial 170.106.33.42 St Bene’t’s 1610 Tentative Prob. 1349 M 18+ Multiple burial St Bene’t’s 1612 Negative Prob. 1349 M 18–25 Multiple burial Clopton S4.4 Positive 1361/62–1561 M 60+ Individual burial, probably later than S4.8 , on –

30 Sep2021 at06:43:02 Clopton S4.4F Unsampled 1361/62 1561 Unknown Foetus Probably same grave as S4.4 Clopton S4.7 Unsampled 1349–c. 1500 Unknown 13–17 Probable double burial with S4.8 Clopton S4.8 Tentative 1349–c. 1500 M 18+ Probable double burial with S4.7, probably earlier than S4.4 Clopton S6.3I Positive 1349–1561 M 60+ Probably individual burial or disarticulated remains that represent a signiﬁcant portion of an individual Clopton S9.14 Tentative 1349–c. 1500 M 18–25 Individual burial, potentially same outbreak as S9.24 , subjectto theCambridgeCore termsofuse,available at Clopton S9.24 Positive 1349–c. 1500 F 13–17 Individual burial, potentially same outbreak as S9.14 Augustinian Friary, cemetery 1975 Positive 1349–c. 1380, M26–35 Individual burial, laity prob. 1349 Augustinian Friary, chapter house 1458 Positive c. 1450–1538 M 13–17 Individual burial, laity Augustinian Friary, chapter house 1482 Positive 1476–1538 M 7–12 Individual burial, novice Augustinian Friary, chapter house 1771 Positive c. 1450–1538 M 18–25 Individual burial, friar Midsummer Common Negative 1550–1666 M 18+ Midsummer Common Negative 1550–1666 M 18+ 8 European Journal of Archaeology 2021

Figure 2. Plan and photograph of Y. pestis positive skeleton 82 from All Saints (plan by Vicki Herring for the ‘Resurrecting Cambridge(shire)’s medieval dead’ project, photograph courtesy of Vince Gregory).

Figure 3. Plan of burial grounds at St Bene’t’s church and the Augustinian Friary, plus details of trench with mass burial at St Bene’t’s (red = sampled: 1) excavated trench at St Bene’t’s; 2) location of early friary cemetery; 3) friary chapter house; 4) friary church; 5) friary cloister; 6) friary later cemetery. © Cambridge Archaeological Unit.

outbreaks when additional burial space some clavicles were recoverable, as the rest might presumably have been useful. of the skeletons extended outside the trench under live cables and pipes. The bodies were carefully laid out, on west-east St Bene’t’s alignments, apparently in extended supine positions, and stacked at least three deep. St Bene’t’s (a contraction of Benedict’s) Four skeletons were tested, with two posi- parochial church in Cambridge was estab- tive and one tentative identifications of lished in c. 1000–1050 and remains in use, Y. pestis (Table 2). It is probable that this with burial continuing until the 1850s. A mass burial relates to the Black Death as it strip of land along the western side of the is likely to predate the early/mid 1350s, churchyard was transferred to Corpus but the possibility of it being linked to Christi College between 1352 and 1377, outbreaks in 1361–1362, 1369 and 1374 to form an entrance route between Bene’t and later cannot be entirely excluded. Street and the College. Part of this strip The St Bene’t’s mass burial is the only was excavated (Figure 3), revealing example known from Cambridge. Given twenty-nine individual burials and part of the relatively low level of investigation in one mass burial. The partially excavated parish cemeteries locally and the high mass burial (F.1522) took the form of a degree of truncation at most such sites by large feature with nearly vertical sides over later burials, particularly eighteenth–nine- 1.0 m by over 0.4 m in extent, but almost teenth century brick-burial vaults, it is certainly significantly larger. It survived to possible that parochial mass burials were a depth of 0.75 m but must originally have common. Although only a relatively small been at least c. 1.8 m deep. At least five investigation could take place, parts of just individuals were present; only the skull, five skeletons were found and the extent some upper vertebrae and occasionally of the original feature is uncertain. As

bodies were stacked at least three deep, the fulfilling both commemorative chantry obli- feature is probably considerably larger than gations (endowing clerics to say masses for the investigated portion. Based on mass the souls of guild members) and a higher burials from East Smithfield (Grainger educational role, an idea that became fash- et al., 2008), if F.1522 was relatively small it ionable after c.1340(Hall,1993:78).The might have contained two to three times the College statutes of 1356 record that the number of bodies identified. Alternatively, if master and two fellows were to be priests it extended as far as St Bene’t’s Street it studying theology or canon law, praying the could have been large enough to contain up canonical hours (a unique requirement for to 100–120 bodies. an English college), serving as chaplain to Corpus Christi College was founded by the guild of Corpus Christi, and attending the two parish guilds of Corpus Christi the funerals of all guild members. This and the Blessed Virgin Mary (Bateson, effectively created a perpetual chantry, 1903; Hall, 1993; Hatcher, 2010; Barber, where the primary responsibility of the 2018). Such guilds were devotional and fellows and scholars was the provision of social organizations, one of whose main prayers for the welfare and prosperity of the roles was to provide burial rites and com- guild members while alive and of their souls memorative masses for deceased members. after death, in return for financial support. The guild of the Blessed Virgin Mary was The Black Death would have resulted in probably established in 1278–1285. Its numerous bequests to the guild. Many bede roll is a document that lists the would have been deliberate, but additionally deceased who should be prayed for. At it is likely that many wills failed due to heirs the end, there is a list of ‘For the souls of having died. Executors could then gift the departed in the mortality and after the estates for charitable purposes, with the ori- year of the Lord 1349 and after’ (Bateson, ginal creator of the will potentially becom- 1903:24–25). It lists eighty-nine indivi- ing a guild member posthumously (Barber, duals who died in 1349–1352. Although 2018: 60). there is no way to be certain, assuming In the fourteenth century Cambridge broadly normal mortality rates after the colleges had unobtrusive entrances. As Black Death (see Smith, 2018 for a recent part of the construction of Corpus Christi discussion and references), it is probable College, the College gained a narrow strip that some seventy to eighty of these indi- along the western side of St Bene’t’s viduals died of plague in 1349. churchyard. This linked the College build- There is no evidence that the guild of ings to Bene’t Street, forming the original Corpus Christi existed before 1349. It was main access route to the College leading actively promoted during the spring and to the ‘old gateway’ or ‘ancient entrance’ summer of that year but was not formally (Willis & Clark, 1886 vol. IV: fig. 10). constituted until 1350 (Hall, 1993: 74). No legal documentation relating to this Construction of the Corpus Christi College acquisition survives, but it probably took buildings began in c. 1352 and completed place in c. 1352 or soon after and certainly by 1377 (Willis & Clark, 1886 vol. I: 251). by 1377. Before the nineteenth century, The last recorded intake of guild members this was the only entrance to the College, was in 1358 and it probably effectively apart from some staircases on Free School ceased to exist in the 1370s. There is no evi- Lane, an unusual and unnecessary arrange- dence that Corpus Christi ever developed as ment since an entrance from Free School a conventional guild and it appears to have Lane would have been perfectly practical been founded solely to create a college, and more normal. The fact the College

was deliberately provided with an access several nearby parishes (Palmer, 1933: route that lay over a mass burial from 34–35) but was generally uncommon in St Bene’t’s churchyard, whose location was Cambridgeshire (Byng, 2017: 101–02, fig. presumably well known, is unlikely to be 1.7). Ten candidates were also inducted coincidental. The master and fellows of into the clergy, indicating local community the College would have had to walk over resilience and religious stability in the it every time they entered or exited the aftermath of the Black Death. Although college, including on their frequent trips the decline and ultimate abandonment of to St Bene’t’s church to pray, as direct Clopton may partly be linked to the access from the College to St Bene’t’swas second pandemic, it owes more to a desire only added in the early sixteenth century. on the part of the leading local landowners The location of the access route can be to increase sheep farming (Palmer, 1933), interpreted as an active strategy, incorpor- although this may itself be related to the ating the commemoration of plague second pandemic. victims into daily collegiate chantry practice and a particular reaction to the Black Death. The Augustinian Friary

The Augustinian Friary, founded in 1279/ St. Mary’s, Clopton 1280–1289, was one of the largest religious establishments in Cambridge, with The cemetery of St Mary’s parish church up to seventy friars. It was both a working in the village of Clopton, nineteen kilo- friary and a studium generale or centre of metres south-west of Cambridge, was in academic study, educating friars from use between the thirteenth century and England as well as continental Europe. 1561. Out of the seventeen skeletons The friary probably acquired the right to sampled there, eleven to seventeen date to bury its members in 1290 and was granted the second pandemic. Three tested posi- the right to bury lay people in 1302. As tive for Y. pestis, plus two tentative lay people were usually granted burial in instances. The stratigraphic sequence of the friary in return for a substantial dona- the Y. pestis positive individuals indicates tion, burials of non-friars here probably that victims of more than one outbreak are represent moderately wealthy townspeople. represented. Most of the positive/tentative A cemetery of c. 1290–1380/1420 results came from individual burials, in- located south of the friary church probably terred in a manner indistinguishable from contained a mixture of members of the most of those excavated (Figure 4). One Augustinian order and laity (Figure 5). A individual probably came from a double number of the burials had associated girdle burial, although the excavation records are buckles located on or near the pelvis, indi- unclear. cating that these individuals were buried There had been a church at Clopton in their clothing. The standardized nature since the late twelfth century, but it of the clothed burials, with no evidence of appears that a new church was constructed other dress accessories and a dominance of in a different location from its predecessor particular buckle types (most frequently in the fourteenth century (Alexander, buckles with a D-shaped frame and rect- 1968:58–59). This was probably the angular plate, plus other types with a sym- church that was dedicated at Clopton in metrical double oval frame or oval or 1352, an event that also occurred at D-shaped frames and crescent or double

Figure 4. Plan of St Mary’s Clopton church and cemetery with Y. pestis positive/tentative skeletons (red), plus photograph with Y. pestis positive skeleton S9.24 in centre and plan of Y. pestis tentative skeleton S9.14. Based on Alexander, 1968: 196, figs 1 and 2 and archive held by Cambridgeshire Records Office and the Duckworth Collection (plan by Vicki Herring for the ‘Resurrecting Cambridge(shire)’smedievaldead’ project).

crescent mounts) plus the fact that all the suggests that only Augustinians were clothed individuals were of the appropriate buried in their clothing (Cessford et al., sex and age to be members of the order forthcoming). Twenty-two skeletons were

Figure 5. Plan of Cambridge Augustinian Friary cemetery, with Y. pestis positive burial (red) and other sampled burials that tested negative (blue), plus photograph of Y. pestis positive skeleton 1975. © Cambridge Archaeological Unit.

genetically tested, an estimated four to six only one positive result suggests that most individuals dating to the second pandemic. burials of Black Death victims are located One individual who received a normal elsewhere in the friary. No more than burial (sk.1975; Table 2) proved to be forty to fifty individuals were buried in the positive for Y. pestis, with the strain cemetery in total; moreover, there are indi- ‘potentially identical to other Black Death cations that it was in use over several genomes’ (Spyrou et al., 2019: 3). There decades and some of those buried were are also archaeological grounds for believ- members of the laity. It is therefore likely ing that this individual died before 1380 that no more than a maximum of ten indi- and that 1349 is the most likely date. viduals in the cemetery could have been There were seventy friars in 1328; if the friars who died of plague and the actual population was similar in 1349, then a total is likely to have been lower. This death rate of around forty to sixty per cent suggests that most friars who died during would have resulted in some twenty-eight the Black Death were interred elsewhere. to forty-two friars dying of plague. The No Augustinian friars were ordained in dead may well have included the prior, the diocese of Ely in 1347–1353, suggest- John de Comberton, who is documented ing considerable disturbance caused by the in 1343 and 1348 but had been succeeded Black Death. By 1356, the friars were by John Tuylet by 1350. Although trunca- repairing their church, indicating a rela- tion removing entire graves and false nega- tively rapid recovery from the effects of tives may have had some impact, finding the Black Death. Initially after the Black

Death, the number of Augustinian friars been a novice recruited at what would in England appears to have been stable, have been an unacceptably young age probably because new entrants replaced before the changes caused by the second the deceased, but this number fell around pandemic. a generation later in a delayed reaction The most striking aspect of the way (Roth, 1966 vol. I: 84). Recruitment issues these plague victims were buried is the led to a lowering of the minimum age for degree of investment in burial. Interment accepting novices from fourteen to eleven in the chapter house was a relatively com- years old and then ten, and dispensations plicated and laborious affair. The chapter such as priests being exempted from house occupied a prominent, indoor and knowing Latin. There were also increased architecturally elaborate position in the bequests of property to friaries and a rise friary’s daily routine and burial within it in chantry chapels attached to friary was reserved for important individuals. It churches (Roth, 1966 vol. I: 137, 141, was more onerous than burial in an exter- 239). nal cemetery and took place in a much- A further six burials were excavated used space. The chapter house had a mor- from a later chapter house, which was in tared tile floor; dozens of the tiles would use in c. 1380/1420–1538; this represents have to be carefully lifted before a burial all or most of the individuals buried there was inserted and either reinstated or (Figure 6). The chapter house was entered replaced with a grave slab afterwards. In through a single doorway from the clois- addition, there is evidence that the mater- ter, with benches providing seating around ial excavated from the graves was removed the walls of the room and an open central from the chapter house, and a different space. This building was second in material was used when the graves were importance only to the church. All breth- backfilled. The burial of plague victims in ren gathered here every morning for meet- the chapter house demonstrates a willing- ings, which included readings of the ness to continue to expend considerable Martyrology (a list of martyrs and other effort on individual burials during out- saints arranged by their anniversaries or breaks. It also shows that there was no feasts) and Necrology (a list of the deaths particular concern about plague being a of people related to the friary). All six ‘bad death’ or about contagion from those burials were tested, with three proving who died from plague. These burials can positive for Y. pestis. The chapter house be conceptualized as the opposite of mass was altered at some point in the fifteenth interments, which demonstrate the century, in c. 1450; all the Y. pestis positive expenditure of minimum effort per indi- burials were associated with this later vidual buried. phase (Table 2). One individual was radio- A mixture of local and national textual carbon-dated to after 1476 and the ana- sources suggests that, given the dates of lysed Y. pestis aDNA from one skeleton c. 1450/1475–1538 for these burials, there also indicates a relatively late date (Spyrou may have been between some twelve and et al., 2019: 5). Two of the Y. pestis posi- twenty plague outbreaks in Cambridge by tive burials had associated buckles (indi- the time(s) these individuals died. The cating, as mentioned, that they were later outbreaks were all less devastating members of the Augustinian order), while than the initial Black Death, but still sig- a third was probably a member of the nificant. Some probably claimed the lives laity. One individual with a buckle was no of less than five per cent of the population older than twelve and must therefore have and even the largest later outbreaks are

Figure 6. Plan of Cambridge Augustinian Friary chapter house, with Y. pestis positive burials (red) and other sampled burials (blue), plus photographs of chapter house during excavation, facing east, and Y. pestis positive skeletons. © Cambridge Archaeological Unit.

likely to have killed no more than between but not necessarily catastrophic, reality ten and twenty per cent of the population. that society had at least partially adjusted The chapter house burials took place in a to. Dozens if not hundreds of individuals context where mass death through plague at the Augustinian Friary must have died outbreaks was an occasional and traumatic, of plague while the chapter house was in

use. Most of these must have been buried Why should this be? The most likely elsewhere, possibly in the friary church scenario is that, as the Black Death hit or cemetery. These contemporary burial Cambridge, the Hospital of St John may grounds have not been located or investi- have stopped burying its dead in its gated; but it is apparent that plague burials general cemetery. The cemetery lies on the were conducted at multiple locations. opposite side of the High Street from the main hospital site, where the chapel, infirmary, and other buildings were The Hospital of St John located. There is evidence, including textual references, disarticulated human The Hospital of St John the Evangelist bone (some with radiocarbon dates in the was a small charitable institution providing thirteenth century), and surviving monu- care for the poor and infirm, established mental brasses, that burial took place in in c. 1190–1200 and dissolved in 1511 and around the chapel and cloister in the (Figure 7). The hospital was hit hard by medieval period. When plague struck, the the Black Death. While we know nothing hospital staff and inmates may have barred of how the plague affected the inmates, their gates and remained within the hospi- records of clerical staff reveal that three suc- tal’s walled precinct. As the staff died of cessive masters of the hospital, Alexander plague, they would have been buried in or Ixning, Robert Sprouston, and Roger around the chapel. This would include the Broom, died between May and June 1349. four masters and clerical brethren who By the end, only two of the original six died in 1349 and who would have anyway clerical brethren were still alive. been buried within the chapel. To avoid Ninety-seven skeletons from the hospital venturing out of the hospital’s gates, the cemetery were tested for aDNA; forty-seven practice of burying within the confines of to fifty-seven of these are probably contem- the hospital may have been extended to porary with the second pandemic. None the hospital’s inmates, who would nor- proved positive for Y. pestis. While false mally have been interred in the detached negatives are possible, this is unlikely to be cemetery. This was presumably repeated the entire explanation for this absence, par- during the many later plague outbreaks, as ticularly given the large number of skeletons the cemetery continued in use until at sampled compared to the other sites. The least the mid-fifteenth century. burial environment and underlying geology are closely comparable to the Augustinian Friary, located only 400 m away, where DISCUSSION Y. pestis was detected. The aDNA preservation was not abnormally low and allowed for As far as we are aware, our results are the successful identification of commensal among the first identifications of Y. pestis bacteria as well as human aDNA. It there- linked to the second plague pandemic fore appears improbable that a significant from individual burials in burial grounds number of individuals who died of plague that were not established because of the were buried here. This receives some plague (for an example from Oslo, see support from the summed probabilities of Namouchi et al., 2018). This greatly the modelled radiocarbon determinations expands our understanding of burial from the cemetery, which indicate a rela- customs during the second pandemic, tively low number of burials in the cemetery while the geographical focus allows us to around the time of the Black Death. compare a range of burial responses to

Figure 7. Plan of the Hospital of St John, showing location of detached cemetery (red), plus reconstruc- tion of the Hospital in the fourteenth century facing southwest (plan by Vicki Herring and reconstruc- tion by Mark Samuel, both for the ‘After the Plague’ project). Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.33.42, on 30 Sep 2021 at 06:43:02, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/eaa.2021.19 18 European Journal of Archaeology 2021

Figure 8. Timeline of sites with Y. pestis positive/tentative burials (black), plus sites where there were no positive results (grey).

that pandemic within a single town and its Archaeologists have long recognized hinterland. that many plague victims were buried indi- During the second pandemic, bodies of vidually in pre-existing cemeteries and individuals who died of plague were interred churches, in a manner typical of the in a variety of ways. Mass burials appear to period. Such burials would ‘probably be be rather exceptional, whereas a significant archaeologically indistinguishable from proportion of burials were carried out in a other … interments’ (Hawkins, 1990: 641; highly normative way. While the archaeo- see also Grainger et al., 2008: 29). logical discourse has previously focused on Without biomolecular evidence, it had the exceptional, this article demonstrates previously been impossible to move that the normative can also be identified. beyond a general recognition of this phe- The work of the ‘After the Plague’ project nomenon. The focus on emergency ceme- has revealed Y. pestis positive individuals teries and mass burials has created a biased from five burial grounds in or near impression in the literature, now tempered Cambridge (Figure 8), nearly doubling the by the recognition of individual normative number of locations from the British Isles. burials in ‘ordinary’ cemeteries at All Perhaps some 2300–3500 people died of Saints, the cemetery and chapter house of plague in a few months in 1349 in the Augustinian Friary, and at Clopton. Cambridge and were buried at seventeen While it would be tempting to create a parish churches, a nunnery, two priories, dichotomy between individual and mass and four friaries, as both individual inter- burials, this should not be overstated. ments and mass burials. By the time of the Individuals in mass burials, at least those last outbreak in 1665/1666, many tens of dating to the fourteenth–fifteenth centur- thousands of inhabitants of Cambridge had ies, were generally laid out in a careful and died of plague. Y. pestis aDNA has been respectful manner in an extended supine identified in eight Cambridge inhabitants, position with their heads to the west repli- of whom six are likely to have died in 1349. cating the practice of individual burials as While at one level this is a negligible far as possible. number, it represents a revolution in our Beyond this, while research into ‘normal’ understanding. plague burials is still incipient, it is striking

how even our limited results provide sug- barring its gates against the plague, no gestive vignettes of very different responses longer venturing out to bury its dead in its to the plague. Within one townscape, it is detached cemetery, and instead burying them possible to find: somewhere within its enclosed grounds. However, further in-depth studies are neces- . Individuals buried within a normal sary to investigate differences in aDNA parish church cemetery with rites in- preservation. distinguishable from any others (All Saints), even within a parish severely affected by plague. The same is true in CONCLUSION rural parish cemeteries (Clopton). . A mass burial of at least five individuals Archaeological studies of second pandemic within a parish cemetery (St Bene’t’s). burials need no longer focus almost exclu- This signals a community overwhelmed sively on emergency cemeteries established and unable to cope through normal in response to the plague or on mass burial process, but still treating bodies burials. Normative single burials in pre- with as much respect as possible. existing burial grounds were shown to be Presumably, this was traumatic enough suitable sources for Y. pestis aDNA, includ- that the location was incorporated into ing those from earlier excavations as a place of memory for a subsequent reli- samples from skeletons excavated in the gious establishment, Corpus Christi 1960s and 1970s proved viable. These offer College, founded explicitly in response valuable insights into the coping strategies to the Black Death. of different communities dealing with epi- . Within a large, high-status religious demic events on a societal level, drawing a institution (the Augustinian Friary), more comprehensive picture of frailty and clerics who had died of plague were resilience in past societies. This broadening buried in the normal manner. Both demonstrates the potential for a revolution clerics and members of the laity killed in the archaeological understanding of soci- in later fifteenth–sixteenth-century waves eties facing severe epidemic outbreaks. If of plague were sometimes interred in the emergency cemeteries and mass burials are architectural heart of the community. atypical, with most plague victims instead This shows a concern to mark their receiving individual burial in normal ceme- status, requiring considerably more than teries, this calls into question how represen- the minimum effort, plague victim or tative these exceptional sites are. While the not. Other individuals who died of numbers of plague victims in individual plague were interred elsewhere at the burials identified so far is too small to draw friary, as befitted their status. any demographic conclusions about the sex The systematic testing of ninety-seven and age of those who died, it at least sug- individuals buried at the Hospital of gests that emergency cemeteries and mass St John, including at least forty-seven who burials are but one side of the story. lived during the second pandemic, yielded no positive Y. pestis identifications, while plague appeared in much smaller numbers SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL of samples from contemporary contexts elsewhere and textual sources record indi- To view supplementary material for this viduals dying during the Black Death. article, please visit https://doi.org/10.1017/ This could be suggestive of an institution eaa.2121.19.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Publication 39). Cambridge: Cambridge Antiquarian Society. – The ‘After the Plague’ project is supported Benedictow, O. 2004. The Black Death, 1346 1353: The Complete History. Woodbridge: by the Wellcome Trust (Collaborative Boydell. Grant 200368/Z/15/Z). Some graphics Byng, G. 2017. Church Building and Society and radiocarbon determinations were in the Later Middle Ages. Cambridge: funded by the McDonald Institute for Cambridge University Press. https://doi. Archaeological Research, as part of the org/10.1017/9781316661765 Casson, C., Casson, M., Lee, J.S. & Phillips, ‘Resurrecting Cambridge(shire)’s medieval ’ K. 2020. Compassionate Capitalism: Business dead project and work has also been sup- and Community in Medieval England. ported by St John’s College, Cambridge. Bristol: Bristol University Press. https:// A version of this article was presented at doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvzsmcq4 the Society for Medieval Archaeology con- Cessford, C., Hall, A., Mulder, B., Neil, B., Riddler, I. & Wiles, J. forthcoming. ference ‘The Long Black Death: New ’ Buried with their Buckles On: Clothed Perspectives (York, July 2019). We are Burial at the Augustinian Friary, grateful to all our colleagues on the ‘After Cambridge. Medieval Archaeology. the Plague’ project, and to the Cambridge Dennis, D.T., Gage, K.L., Gratz, N.G., Archaeological Unit, Cambridgeshire County Poland, J.D. & Tikhomirov, E. 1999. Council Historical Environment Team, Plague Manual: Epidemiology, Distribution, Surveillance and Control. Geneva: World and the Duckworth Laboratory for access Health Organization. https://apps.who.int/ to their collections and sampling permis- iris/handle/10665/66010 sions. Thanks are also due to the original Evans, D.H. 2002. Buried with the Friars. In: excavators of All Saints, Paul Craddock and P. Bahn, ed. Written in Bones: How Vince Gregory. We are grateful to the four Human Remains Unlock the Secrets of the Dead. Newton Abbot: David & Charles, anonymous reviewers for their comments. pp. 27–31. The aDNA lab at the University of Tartu is Grainger, I. & Phillpotts, C. 2011. The supported by the European Union, through Cistercian Abbey of St Mary Graces, East the European Regional Development Smithfield, London (MOLA Monograph 44). Fund [Project No. 2014–2020.4.01.16– London: Museum of London Archaeology. Grainger, I., Hawkins, D., Cowal, L. & 0030] (Christiana Scheib, Meriam Guellil, Mikulski, R. 2008. The Black Death Marcel Keller), and the Estonian Research Cemetery, East Smithfield.London:Museum Council, personal research grant [PRG243] of London Archaeology Service. (Christiana Scheib). Green, M.H. ed. 2015. Pandemic Disease in the Medieval World: Rethinking the Black Death. Kalamazoo: Arc-Medieval Press. REFERENCES https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvmd83jc Hall, C.P. 1993. The Gild of Corpus Christi Alexander, J.A. 1968. Clopton: The and the Foundation of Corpus Christi Life-Cycle of a Cambridgeshire Village. College: An Investigation of the In:L.M.Munby,ed.East Anglian Documents. In: P.N.R. Zutschi, ed. Studies. Cambridge: Heffer & Sons, pp. Medieval Cambridge: Essays on the Pre- 48–70. Reformation University.Woodbridge: Barber, R. 2018. The City of London and the Boydell, pp. 65–91. Founding of the Guild of Corpus Christi. Hartle, R. 2017. The New Churchyard: From In: J.S. Lee & C. Steer, eds. Commemoration Moorfields Marsh to Bethlem Burial Ground, in Medieval Cambridge. Martlesham: Brokers Row and Liverpool Street (MOLA/ Boydell & Brewer, pp. 52–60. https://doi. Crossrail Archaeology 10). London: Museum org/10.1017/9781787443471.004 of London Archaeology. Bateson, M. 1903. Cambridge Gild Records Hatcher, J. 2010. For the Souls of the (Cambridge Antiquarian Society Octavo Departed in the Mortality of the Year of

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Address: McDonald Institute for Archaeo- Marcel Keller is a palaeogeneticist special- logical Research and Cambridge Archaeo- izing in ancient pathogen genomics and is logical Unit, University of Cambridge, currently postdoctoral research fellow Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3ER, assistant for ancient DNA at the Institute UK. [email: [email protected]]. ORCiD: of Genomics, University of Tartu, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7291-7828 Estonia. He wrote his dissertation, Yersinia Pestis Genomes of the First and Second Plague Pandemic Recovered from Christiana L. Scheib is a palaeogeneticist Ancient DNA, at the Max Planck Institute and is currently the head of the Ancient for the Science of Human History in Jena DNA research group at the Institute of and was awarded his Dr. rer. nat. by the Genomics, University of Tartu, Estonia. Friedrich Schiller University Jena in 2020. She is a research fellow at St John’s College, Cambridge, an honorary research associate Address: Institute of Genomics, University of the McDonald Institute for of Tartu, Riia 23B, Tartu, Estonia 51010. Archaeological Research in Cambridge, and [email: [email protected]]. ORCiD: was a post-doctoral researcher on the ‘After https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9668-6817 the Plague’ project. Her PhD, Genetic History of Southern California and its Channel Islands: A Population-scale Study of Ancient Craig Alexander is an independent Whole Genome Data,wasawardedbythe researcher and specialist in the modelling University of Cambridge in 2016. of radiocarbon determinations.

Address: Institute of Genomics, University Address: [email: [email protected]]. of Tartu, Riia 23B, Tartu, Estonia 51010. ORCiD: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7539- [email: [email protected]]. ORCiD: https:// 6415 orcid.org/0000-0003-4158-8296

Sarah A. Inskip is an osteoarchaeologist Meriam Guellil is a palaeogeneticist at the University of Leicester. Her specializing in ancient pathogen genom- research focuses on revealing the impact icsandmetagenomicsandiscurrentlya of the arrival and commodification of postdoctoral research fellow at the tobacco on the health of Western Institute of Genomics, University of Europeans from 1600 to 1900. She was Tartu, Estonia. Her PhD, Disease During previously a post-doctoral researcher on ‘ ’ the Second Plague: Genomic, Metagenomic the After the Plague projectatthe and Phylogenetic Analysis of Ancient University of Cambridge and prior to DNAfromPutativePlagueVictims,was that assistant professor at Leiden awarded by the University of Oslo in University. Her PhD, Islam in Iberia or 2018. Iberian Islam: Sociobioarchaeology and the Analysis of Emerging Islamic Identity in Address: Institute of Genomics, Univer- Early Medieval Iberia, was awarded by sity of Tartu, Riia 23B, Tartu, Estonia the University of Southampton in 2014. 51010. [email: meriam.guellil.ac@gmail. She has just received a UK Research and com]. ORCiD: https://orcid.org/0000- Innovation (UKRI) Future Leaders 0002-7235-4604 Fellowship at the University of Leicester

to explore the impact of tobacco on His research interests include archaeological health in post-medieval Western Europe. and anthropological theory, European pre- history, and European prehistoric and Address: School of Archaeology and human skeletal analysis. He is the Ancient History, University of Leicester, principal investigator on the ‘After the LE1 7RH, UK. [email: [email protected]]. Plague’ project. ORCiD: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7424- 2094 Address: Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3ER, UK. [email: jer39@ John Robb is a professor at the Department cam.ac.uk]. ORCiD: https://orcid.org/ of Archaeology, University of Cambridge. 0000-0002-7987-4549

Au-delà des fosses communes : analyses génétiques permettant d’identifier les réactions à l’égard de la Peste Noire dans le Cambridgeshire au Moyen Âge

L’ADN ancien de Yersinia pestis a été identifié parmi les squelettes provenant de quatre cimetières urbains à Cambridge en Angleterre et dans un cimetière de la campagne environnante. Ces sépultures datant d’entre 1349 et 1561 apr. J.-C. contenaient des individus morts de la peste lors de la seconde pandémie de peste en Europe au Moyen Âge. La plupart avaient été enterrés dans des tombes indivi- duelles ordinaires et non dans des fosses communes. Ce résultat marque une avancée majeure en archéologie en mettant l’accent sur les pratiques funéraires courantes au Moyen Âge plutôt que sur quel- ques découvertes exceptionnelles de fosses communes. Une considération détaillée des contextes des sépultures permet aux auteurs d’identifier les diverses réactions envers la seconde pandémie de peste à Cambridge et aux alentours et de formuler un récit plus fourni qu’auparavant. Translation By Madeleine Hummler

Mots-clés: peste, seconde pandémie de peste, ADN ancien, sépultures, Cambridge

Jenseits der Massengräber: genetische Untersuchungen zur Identifizierung der Reaktionen auf die Pest im Cambridgeshire

Vier Friedhöfe in der Stadt Cambridge in England und ein ländlicher Kirchhof in der Umgebung lieferten Nachweise auf Yersinia pestis mittels alter DNA. Die Skelette, die zwischen 1349 und 1561 datieren, gehören zu Individuen, die der zweiten Pest pandemie zum Opfer fielen. Die meisten stammen aus regelhaften Einzelgräbern und nicht aus Massengräbern. Dieses Ergebnis stellt einen wesentlichen Fortschritt für die archäologische Forschung dar, da es den Fokus weg von einigen wenigen außergewöhnlichen Massengräbern verschiebt und den Schwerpunkt auf normale mittelalter- liche Grabsitten legt. Die detaillierte Untersuchung des Kontexts der Bestattungen erlaubt es, eine Serie von Reaktionen auf die zweite Pest Pandemie innerhalb einer Stadt und ihrer Umgebung zu identifi- zieren und ein differenzierteres Bild als zuvor zu schildern. Translation By Madeleine Hummler

Stichworte: Schwarze Pest, zweite Pest Pandemie, aDNA, Gräber, Cambridge