Historical and Biological Approaches to the Study of Modern Age French Plague Mass Burials
Authors
Raffaella Bianucci
Laboratory of Forensic Sciences, Department of Anatomy, Pharmacology and Forensic Medicine, University of TurinAnthropologie Bioculturelle, UMR 6578, CNRS, EFS, Université de la Méditerranée, Faculté de Médecine, Marseille, France.
Stean Tzortzis
Biocultural Anthropology, UMR 6578, CNRS, EFS, University of the Mediterranean, Faculty of Medicine, Marseille, France. Ministry of Culture and Communication, PACA Regional Department of Cultural Affairs, Regional Archeology Service, Aix-en-Provence, France.
Gino Fornaciari
Division of Paleopathology, History of Medicine and Bioethics, Department of Oncology, Transplantation and New Technologies in Medicine, University of Pisa.
Michel Signoli
Ministry of Culture and Communication, PACA Regional Department of Cultural Affairs, Regional Archeology Service, Aix-en-Provence, France. Center for Prehistory Antiquity and Middle Ages Studies, UMR 6130, CNRS, University of Nice - Sophia Antipolis, Valbonne, France
Keywords:
Yersinia pestis, RDT plague, Ancient human remains
Abstract
The “Black Death” and subsequent epidemics from 1346 to the early 18th century spread from the Caspian Sea all over Europe six hundred years after the outbreak of the Justinian plague (541-767 AD). Plague has been one of the most devastating infectious diseases that affected the humankind and has caused approximately 200 million human deaths historically. Here we describe the different approaches adopted in the study of several French putative plague mass burials dating to the Modern Age (16th -18th centuries). Through complementation of historical, archaeological and paleobiological data, ample knowledge of both the causes that favoured the spread of the Medieval plague in cities, towns and small villages and of the modification of the customary funerary practices in urban and rural areas due to plague are gained.
