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THE END OF ROMANBATH WASIT DELIBERATE DESTRUCTION? SITVEROF THE ICENI ffiillillffilllililililililtil SOPHISTICATE D ARTI SAN S -- News I THEVIKING ROOTS OF NORTH.WESTENGLAND
he blood of the Vikingsis still recordsthe namesof arethe NorseVikings lcci coursingthrough the veinsof householdspaying taxes in by Ingimundwho landed men living in the north westof Wirral in the reignof Henry alongthe north coastof England- accordingto Nottingham VIIL Surnamesderived from the Wirralpeninsula after University'sProfessor Stephen localplace-names were also beingexpelled from Dublin Hardingand ProfessorsJudith Jesch included. in AD 902. and MarkJoblingof the Universityof ProfessorMarkJobling Viking placenames, 'Surnames Leicester.Of the 100men they studied said: areunique suchas Aigburth, Formby, in the Wirral (Merseysideand West culturallabels that link Crosby,lbxteth and Lancashire)half provedto haveDNA modern peoplewith the Croxteth,also reflect Above Viking/ilrs. lo(lr1 s this linked to Scandinavianancestry. past. Usingold surname football club owesits rttun,' legacr',as does the nameof Keyto the studywas the listsallows us to travelback to its Nordicturcestors. lralttttrreRor er., iootbal- identificationof men with long- in time, samplingfrom tt-anr.\\'irral and l.iverpool standingfamily rootsin an areathat modern populationsin a way that alsohave the clnh'ttvo trrcLtlrrlttrs ot .l e.rperienceda hugepopulation influx reflectspre-industrial ones.' theplace-name hinr.rr'all. nt(;ilt in ! 'parliament' at the IndustrialRevolution. Members Publishingtheir resultsin Moleculqr or'assentbh',I hurgr rr.:: of the researchteam searched for Biologyand Evolution(website: mbe. in Iceland). peoplewith old surnamesdistinctive oxfordiournal s. org/ cgi/ reprint/ 2 5 / 2/ 3 01), Thanksto a \\'ellcomelroundation to the region,gathering names from the teamreported a high incidenceof grant,the teamno\\.plans to ertenclits iocaldocuments.One was a list of men genegroups similar to thoseof men workto North Lancashire,Cun.rbria, rvhohad promisedto contributeto the in modern Orkneyand Norway.This the Solwayand Yorkshireir.r the hope !tipendof the priestof the altarof Our suggestsdescent from Scandinavian of mappingthe geneticcontributions l-advat Ormskirkin 1366and another settlers;the most likelv candidates of Vikingsin moredetail.
THECHANCES OF SURVIVINGTHE BLACK DEATHEXPLAINED I I f hy did somepeople survive the BlackDeath, under-nutritionor otherforms of physiologicalstress were lf It andothers succumb? At thetime of the plague presentin mostof thoseburied at EastSmithfield, where f I -which ravagedEurope from1347 to 1351, the deadwere stacked five deep in the massgraves on a site carryingoff 50 millionplople, perhaps half the poputation hurriedlyopened on landdonated by the Bishopof London. 'This - variousprophylactics were tried, from the killingof birds, actuallycontradicts what manv have assumed about catsand ratsto the wearinqof leather the epidemic, saysDr DeWitte. 'The pattern breeches(protecting the legsfrom fleabites) we observed is of the Black Death targeting andthe burningof aromaticspices and the weak, though it did also kill some herbs. people who were otherwise healthy. This is Now it seemsthat the bestway of consistentwith an emerging diseasestriking avoidingdeath from the diseasewas to be a population with no immunity'. fit and healthy.Sharon DeWitte and James Ylbod of the Universityof Albany,New York, Left, During theplague, physicians wore a beaklike lf,:i:';,:1::-* haveexamined 490 skeletonsfrom the East maskwhich wasfilled with stronglyaromatic 9nithfieldplague pit in Londonand found herbsand spicesto overpowerthe ntiasmasor bad air thoughtto carry theplagre. Thehat and the Otatthe BlackDeath was selective in picking Iong,black overcoatwas designedto ninitnise skin the alreadyfrail. (damaged df Lesions bone) exposure.Exposed skitt was alsocoated in wax or asociatedwith earlierepisodes of infection, suetto protectagainst droplet cotttarnitilltiotl.
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