Archaeologists have recently discovered a 600-year-old mystery through their investigation. They have found it from the tunnels of London's Crossrail network. Archeologist exhumed the skeletons of two men who were buried apparently holding hands.
The Crossrail project began in 2009, a 26-mile (42 kilometers) rail line from West to East London. Furthermore as reported by The Guardian, interred in double graves their heads both turned right and their fingers interweave. Archeologist suggested the men may have been related in some way, by blood or romance. They may have been brothers or had some other connection. Until DNA testing is done, they cannot be sure about that.
Archeologist excavated skeletons from a cemetery near London's Smithfield meat market, which housed more than 50,000 corpses. Thorough examinations of the bones were done. One man was between 45 years of age and another one around 46 years of age when they died.
DNA test on 12 of the 25 skeletons revealed that four were positive for the bacteria Yersinia pestis, which caused the plague reported by Live Science. Both are assumed to have died in one of the bubonic plague epidemics that swept the capital in the years after the most famous outbreak in 1348, which is estimated to have killed more than half London's population.
Don Walker, senior human Osteologist confirmed that the cemetery was used for the burial of Black Death victims. The results suggest that a high proportion of the burials may have had the plague. He also noted that the chances of obtaining a positive result from infected individuals are only about 30 percent. It is difficult to isolate the bacteria even in infected individuals.
During the Crossrail project, more than 200 archaeologists have managed to take an unprecedented slice down through London, unearthing more than 10,000 objects from 40 locations. Apart from human beings, archaeologists also found a piece of 55 million-year-older amber, bison and mammoth bones. A wide range of the unearthed artifacts and fossils are on display in a new exhibition at the Museum of London Docklands until September 2017.
