Week 17 - Lecture 17 (Medieval Deaths) PDF

Preview

Summary

Death in the Middle Ages...

Description

Lecture 1 Death and burial: the archaeological evidence Suicide: textual evidence Misconceptions:  The potential for quantitative conclusions and the usefulness of those conclusions  Average life expectancy: the meaninglessness of statistics o Average was 24-25 but this is irrelevant because of infant mortality – more susceptible to infections etc  High rates of childhood mortality, including teens, with particular danger in the first two years of life  High rates of female mortality in childbearing o But once an individual survived these perilous episodes, they could live into their old age (recorded cases of individuals living into the seventies and eighties) o In particular, medieval diets (before late period) were low in sugar, and people were less likely to suffer from those diseases that are prevalent in the modern West as a result of ‘lifestyle choices’ that increase the risk of certain diseases, e.g. breast cancer, lung cancer, and the most aggressive forms of all cancers, Type 2 diabetes, etc. o Rates of morality differed hugely from one settlement to another: much depended on luck  no reason why people cannot live into old age once passed this stage o William Pembroke led army at the age of 70 o Mark Todd winning horse trials at 60  Standard of living: vast differences in wage rates, the numerous variables involved in calculations, the deficiencies of evidence and factors beyond our view (Poor) health  Before late middle ages diets were low in sugar, so high standards of dental health; plus (as we’ve just seen) certain diseases would have been less prevalent  Medical care involved plant-based remedies used in non-advanced societies all over the world, which we now know to be effective in many cases, and which modern medical research is attempting to rediscover o Recover from sicknesses and wounds (minor) o No access to antibiotics doesn’t make them unusual  There were no antibiotics; but these were not used beyond the lab until the D-Day landings and might well cease to be effective before long: the Middle Ages are not ‘backward’ in this regard, but normal in historical terms – we are living in a historical blip What does evidence tell us? o Isotopic analysis: where the individual grew up (did they die far from home and if so, why?), their diet over the course of their life (high levels of protein, for instance) o Can link to status o Health and malnourishment: did the individual suffer periods of depravation that left traces in their bones? o height o Health and disease: did the individual suffer diseases or infections that left a trace on their bones? (N.B. not all diseases leave a trace on the bones) o Mortality rates: how likely was an individual to die as a child, or a mother to die in childbirth?

o o o o o

Occupation: did the individual’s work leave a trace on their bones? o Repetitive actions Attitudes to the sick and elderly: to what extent were such people cared for by communities? Law, order and punishment: do particular injuries or deviant burials suggest that the person was executed as punishment for a crime? Religion and belief: what can burial practice tell us about ideas of the afterlife or community ritual? How far can any of these questions be answered based on the available evidence – i.e. how far is the evidence we have representative?

Case Study – Excavation of Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Sewerby, Yorkshire  59 graves excavated, roughly equal female and males, including children.  Most graves contain offerings, which assists in dating the cemetery to mid-6th to mid-7th century AD.  Two burials were contained within wooden coffins. One of these was marked by a cairn of chalk blocks. It contained a female aged between 18 and 24, buried with a rich array of grave goods, including a large bronze cauldron, bracelets, necklaces of amber beads, wrist clasps, girdle hangers, and an iron knife.  Punishment graves are predominantly male – suggests this one is not  On top of the coffin were the remains of another woman o of the coffin’s lid was a second woman, aged 35-45. She was about 5ft 5 in., and had suffered from serious anaemia in childhood, and would have had a lopsided smile o Laying on her front with arms and legs bent up o Stone placed on her back/pelvis o Scenario:  Pushed into the grave  Tried to get out but the stone was thrown which cracked her pelvis  Buried alive o Unusual deviant burial – doesn't fit the normal pattern of execution cemeteries  Execution cemeteries o Far from communities o Face down to prevent them rising and tormenting the living o Examples in 13th century – criminals are continued to be treated this way Textual Evidence: Alexander Murray ▫ How common? How many people? Why? ▫ Friends and relatives of those taking their own lives ▫ People slip between cracks of history o Stories are not told – probably cannot write for themselves ▫ A hypothesis: modern life has seen humankind triumph, at least in the West, over the scourges of pre-modern society: starvation, plague, disease, the commonality of wounding and killing in war or at the hands of criminals. o Is depression rates higher in modern society because we have started to overcome problems such as medical illnesses and constant war? Challenges of Studying Suicide:

 The secrecy of the act: the vast majority of suicides are conducted in private. The agent/victim will generally seek privacy for the purpose: if others are at home they will leave home, or wait till their cohabiters are away, or asleep. o Therefore, there is unlikely to be a witness to the act who can provide their testimony in the written record – the witness can only say that the agent/victim sought privacy and how, but not give any details as to the incident itself o No testimony to how it happened  The concealment of the act: the privacy of the act and its deliberate concealment by relatives of the deceased made it difficult for officers of the law to determine suicide. o Families concealed suicide to avoid shame, to avoid the burial of a loved-one in unconsecrated ground, and to ensure that the deceased’s possessions would pass to their family, rather than to their lord (as suicide was ‘self-murder’ it was felony and thus justified the forfeiture of the agent’s goods).  May lose everything if the head of the household commits suicide  A second stage of concealment might also occur: concealment of the fact of suicide by judges and juries, out of compassion  Discretion and euphemism: writers upon whom we rely to give accounts of suicide, such as those compiling miracle collections, were often reticent because of the difficulty of the subject and the shame it entailed; otherwise they might use a euphemism, e.g. ‘to die of grief’, ‘he fell into despair and died.’ Examples from Legal Records:  Juries, coroners’ reports  Waiting till alone, how they died (bowstring) and then how they were found/who found them  Must raise the hue if someone has seen a crime  Suicide enacted when not of sound mind was not a felony /////////////////////////

Lecture 2 Battlefield archaeology: nature, scope and challenges of the discipline Case studies: Visby, Towton and ‘king in the car park’ Battlefield Archaeology: Medieval battlefields are notoriously difficult to investigate: ♦ Mass graves on the sites themselves – hard to investigate ♦ Surviving textual sources – mostly chronicles – offer little clue as to the precise location of an engagement, large site ♦ Changes to the landscape over hundreds of years can make it difficult to read the terrain in order to posit the most plausible candidate ♦ The dead were sometimes moved – they were buried in and around the battle site but then later dug up and reinterred in consecrated ground o Not denying a proper burial to the enemies ♦ For this reason, archaeological exploration of battlefield sites is particularly challenging: it might involve the speculative surveying of vast areas, in the hope of detecting small finds or the graves of the battle dead ♦ There are, then, precious few medieval battles whose exact location can be claimed with any certainty, while only three medieval battlefields – or rather a some of their graves – have been successfully excavated: Visby (Gotland, 1361), Aljubarrota (Portugal, 1385) and Towton (England, 1461) Battle of Visby:  A battle between forces of the Danish king and the militia of Gotland, 27th July 1361  Excavated from 1920s; some 1185 individuals are represented o Gotland is the Venice of the North – wealthy, trade, populated by merchants, traders... o Targeted by Denmark o Number suggests that they were not moved  In the first grave, the remains were laid carefully side by side; in the other graves, they were piled in heaps  The remains were excavated by quadrants and the bones were catalogued by type rather than individual o Separated different parts of individuals – only was to properly assess the person, wounds... o People have tried to piece together these individuals  Armour o Most unusually, most of the men were buried in their armour o Why? Because the armour was outdated and the victors, or looters, did not want it?  But iron is still valuable and can be reused: perhaps it was because the bodies were swollen in the summer’s heat, and it was difficult or unpleasant to remove the armour o Idea of militia armour for invading threats Battle of Towton: Culmination of violence, gruesome and one of the bloodiest battle in the British Isles War of Roses -

 1455 First Battle of St Albans; a mentally absent Henry VI taken under the control of Richard duke of York  10 July 1460 Battle of Northampton, Henry VI defeated by Edward earl of March (son of Richard duke of York) and taken captive; Richard duke of York lays claim to the throne and is designated Henry VI’s successor  30 December 1460 Battle of Wakefield, Richard of York defeated and killed  Feb 1461 victory of Edward earl of March at the Battle of Mortimer’s Cross, followed swiftly by Lancastrian victory at Second Battle of St Albans, Henry VI rescued  29 March (Palm Sunday) 1461 Battle of Towton, victory of Edward earl of March, who was then crowned Edward IV o c. 20,000 soldiers on each side, who fought for ten hours in a freezing snowstorm on a small battle field. No quarter was to be given. The death toll was estimated by various independent sources at between 20,000 and 28,000. Excavations  Led by Tim Sutherland (York), after accidental discovery of grave in 1996 by builders  38 skeletons discovered initially; in 2002-05 a further three single burials and a triple grave were found  52.5% were supine (back); 42.5% prone (front); 5% on right side  Demographics: o All the Towton skeletons were male o Ages ranged between 15 and 45 o 27% were 18-25 o 27% were 26-35 o 25% were 36-45 o They ranged in height from 5’2” to 6’1”, with a mean height of 5’6”  (c.f. Visby, mean height of 5’5”) Wounds: Body  24% of the Towton dead had suffered fractures that had healed o State of medical and social care o Older injuries possibly from other battles  36% showed evidence of wounds in places other than the skull around the time of death – 56 peri-mortem wound markers have been recorded; while some individuals had only one wound, others had up to nine  The vast majority of wounds were the result of sharp force trauma  The majority of the wounds were to hands and forearms (results of defensive/parrying actions)  The neck was also frequently the target of attack from bladed weapons; no complete decapitations but partial cuts to cervical vertebrae, particularly posterior Head  33 skulls found  129 cranial peri-mortem injuries to these 33 skulls (Average of 3.9 wounds per skull)  Sharp force trauma (by swords or daggers) represent largest group at 65% of all cranial perimortem wounds  Blunt force trauma 25% of wounds  Penetrating or puncture wounds at 13%  The back of the head was a particular target, but the face was most prone to blade wounds

‘King in the Car Park’:  Removed for burial elsewhere – to prove his death and justify the usurpation of Henry Tudor  Curvature of the spine – nobody was expecting this person to have this disability o Shakespeare was actually correct  High status diet – gracile, delicate, slim bones which were also unusual  Chunk missing from skull was not a cause of death and was done during excavating  Bladed weapon in the skull – dagger from battle  Slice into back of head which caused opening was probably fatal blow  Helmet off, on foot  Face not targeted so they could later prove that it was him  Posthumous wound on pelvis by being carried from the battlefield o Humiliation for the past king...