Paleomicrobiology and isotopic analysis has the ability to completely change what we know of past infectious diseases. A study published this month on a fifth century Anglo-Saxon skeleton is one of the most complete I have read.
Lesions on skeletons found at Great Chesterfield in Essex, England, suggested possible leprosy. To confirm this diagnosis, they chose one skeleton that is nearly complete and in good shape for further analysis.
Grave GC86 from Great Chesterford, excavated in a rescue archaeology operation in 1953-4. (Inskip et al, 2015)
The skeleton (GC96) shown to the right is of a 25 to 35-year-old male buried in modestly furnished grave in an area of the cemetery with other visibly disabled people. Radiocarbon dating places these remains at AD 415-545, and thus Migration Age for the Anglo-Saxons. The Great Chesterford cemetery is located roughly in an approximate border area between the kingdom of the East Saxons…
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[…] up about King Oswiu (Oswy) recently; and another one about what scientists found while studying the bones of a leper from that era. She doesn’t post often (drat) but it’s always fascinating […]