Thanks to the thousands of shards dug by British enthusiasts, scientists were able to objectively assess the damage that the Black Death caused to the population of the country - a catastrophic plague epidemic of the 14th century. The discovery is reported in Antiquity magazine and briefly reported by The Guardian.
Simple clay shards from broken dishes are the objects most often come across to archaeologists. The abundance and ubiquity of such debris makes them a valuable indicator of population density. If you dig holes in the territory of a settlement (at a certain interval), and then count and compare the number of shards of different eras from these holes, you can get a more or less accurate picture of the demographic history of this area.
This work was undertaken by thousands of volunteers who excavated 55 settlements in six counties in east England. Carenza Lewis from the University of Lincoln and colleagues studied about two thousand shards of the XIV-XV centuries.
Historians of the twentieth century were skeptical about mortality from the plague epidemic: in their opinion, the authors of medieval chronicles exaggerated the number of cases, and archaeologists almost did not find the burial places of those who died from this disease. However, Lewis's findings confirm the correctness of the epidemic's contemporaries - on average, the population has declined by 45 percent. In some counties, the mortality rate reached 65 percent, for example in Norfolk.
Lewis notes that these figures are underestimated, since the volunteers did not dig on the territory of settlements that were completely abandoned in the XIV-XV centuries, whose inhabitants were completely exterminated by the plague. The archaeologist also emphasizes how devastating the Black Death was for small communities. For example, in Cottenham, Cambridgeshire, 33 of 58 residents died.
Lewis recommended using her data collection method to study the extent of the Black Death in other regions of Europe.
Surveyed settlements
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Image: University of Lincoln
Location of the discovered shards (Bingham town)
Image: University of Lincoln