New Study Reveals Social Inequality Recorded in Medieval Cambridge

New research on hundreds of human remains from medieval Cambridge suggests that social inequality was "recorded on its residents' bones."

Researchers from the University of Cambridge examined some 314 remains dated back to the 10th to the 14th century, excavated from three different burial sites in the historic city. Whenever applicable, they inquired into the presence and characteristics of skeletal trauma, which was considered an indicator of the hardships they endured while still living.

Studying Remains from Different Walks of Life

The excavation locations covered a wide range of the social spectrum, including a parish graveyard for the working class, a more charitable "hospital" that held bodies of the infirm and the destitute, and an Augustinian friary where clergymen and wealthy donors were interred.

Carefully cataloging the nature of every bone break and fracture, researchers were able to build a picture of physical distress experienced by the Cambridge residents either by accident, occupational injury, or violence in their life. Their findings are detailed in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology.

Researchers used X-ray analysis and discovered that 44 percent of working people were found to have bone fractures compared to only 32 percent in the Augustinian friary and 27 percent in the hospital. Additionally, fractures were found to be more common among the male remains, at 40 percent, compared to their female counterparts with 26 percent - across all three sites.

There were also unique and noteworthy cases, including a friar whose skeletal remains resembled those of modern hit-and-run victims, as well as bones that suggest lives in violence.

Working-Class People Exposed to More Risks of Injury

"By comparing the skeletal trauma of remains buried in various locations within a town like Cambridge, we can gauge the hazards of daily life experienced by different spheres of medieval society," explained Dr. Jenna Dittmar, lead author of the study from the Cambridge University Department of Archaeology, in a statement appearing in a CNN news article. She added that ordinary working people had higher risks of injury than the "more sheltered" inmates or the "friars and their benefactors."

Dittmar also explained that the working people spent their days under long hours of heavy manual labor doing crafts like blacksmithing, stonemasonry, or general labor. Outside the town, people worked from dawn to dusk to tend to their fields or care for livestock.

Researchers noted that Cambridge University was still in its infancy, with the first academic progress starting at the onset of the 13th century. Furthermore, Cambridge was known to be mainly a provincial town - composed mainly of artisans from different trades and merchants and farmhands - with a recorded population of only 2,500 to 4,000 by the middle of the 13th century.

They also noted that while the working people did most of the physical labor at the time, life during medieval times was generally difficult, pointing to the friar's case. Dittmar noted the presence of complete fractures "halfway up both his femurs," or thigh bone. She theorized that whatever caused these bones to break might've caused the death, suggesting that it might've come from a cart-related accident.

Check out more news and information about the Medieval Period in Science Times.