Young adults appear to have been particularly vulnerable during the Black Death, according to new research comparing plague victims with people who died in Britain before the pandemic.
The study found that people aged 15 to 24 were nearly twice as common among Black Death burials at Hereford Cathedral as they were in three medieval cemeteries dating from before the arrival of plague. The findings provide further evidence that the Black Death may not have affected all age groups in the same way. Published in Antiquity, the research was carried out by Emilia R. Franklin, John Robb and Piers D. Mitchell of the University of Cambridge.
Comparing mortality before the Black Death
Locations of Hereford Cathedral and the three pre-Black Death cemeteries used in the study: Black Gate, St Dochdwy and Wharram Percy. Image courtesy Franklin et al., Antiquity, CC BY 4.0.
Previous research had already identified an unusually high proportion of young adults among plague victims buried in mass graves at Hereford Cathedral. The new study sought to determine how unusual that pattern was by establishing a clearer picture of mortality before the Black Death.
This is more difficult than it might seem. Although plague pits are closely associated with the pandemic, many Black Death victims were buried in ordinary parish cemeteries. Cemeteries used during and after the pandemic can therefore contain people who died from plague alongside those who died from other causes.
The researchers instead examined three cemeteries that pre-date the Black Death: Black Gate in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, St Dochdwy at Llandough in Wales, and Wharram Percy in North Yorkshire. Together, they provided a sample of 317 adults, which was compared with 73 adults from the Black Death mass graves at Hereford Cathedral. Ancient DNA testing has previously confirmed the presence of Yersinia pestis in the Hereford burials.
Despite representing different medieval communities, the three pre-plague cemeteries produced remarkably similar mortality patterns. Between 17 and 20 per cent of the adults at each site died between the ages of 15 and 24, while mortality peaked among those aged 25 to 34.
Young adults stand out among plague victims
Comparison of age-at-death profiles from the Hereford Cathedral Black Death mass graves and the combined pre-Black Death cemeteries. The largest difference can be seen among those aged 15 to 24. Image courtesy Franklin et al., Antiquity, CC BY 4.0.
The researchers combined the three cemeteries to create a pre-Black Death comparison group. When this was compared with the Hereford plague victims, the largest difference appeared among the youngest adults.
People aged 15 to 24 represented 18.3 per cent of the pre-Black Death sample, compared with 34.2 per cent of the Black Death burials. Those aged 25 to 34 accounted for 33.1 per cent of the pre-plague sample and 41.1 per cent of the plague victims. Among every subsequent age group, mortality was higher in the pre-Black Death population. The differences between the overall profiles were statistically significant.
As the researchers explain:
A high proportion of young adults followed by a mortality peak at 25–34 years likely indicates plague mortality, while a lower proportion of young adults followed by a mortality peak at 25–34 years is more likely to represent an attritional demography.
The important distinction is that young adulthood was already a dangerous period in medieval Britain. In the pre-plague cemeteries, mortality peaked among people aged 25 to 34. What distinguishes the Black Death burials is the much larger proportion of people who died between the ages of 15 and 24.
Why were young adults more vulnerable?
The researchers caution that the results do not necessarily mean that being young made someone biologically more susceptible to plague. Other circumstances could have contributed to the pattern. They offer two possibilities:
It is possible that there was a high proportion of young adults living in Hereford in the mid-fourteenth century. Those aged 32 or older would have survived the nation-wide Great Famine of 1315–1317 and it could be that the relatively low representation of individuals aged 35 or older within the Black Death burials reflects deaths during the Great Famine. It is also possible that aspects of medieval life placed young adults at greater risk of contracting, and dying of, plague. Documentary sources indicate that those of lower socioeconomic status had elevated mortality during the outbreak and younger people, with less accumulated wealth and resources, may have been particularly vulnerable.
Previous research at Hereford also found evidence that health earlier in life may have mattered. Signs of physiological stress during childhood, visible as defects in tooth enamel, were significantly more common among the Hereford plague victims than among people in the site’s ordinary cemetery. Similar research on London’s East Smithfield plague cemetery has associated childhood physiological stress with an increased risk of dying during the Black Death.
The new study strengthens earlier findings from Hereford by comparing the plague victims with people from several medieval communities who definitely lived before the arrival of the Black Death.
The article, “Before and after the Black Death: understanding catastrophic and attritional mortality,” by Emilia R. Franklin, John Robb and Piers D. Mitchell, appears in Antiquity. Click here to read it.
The trio also wrote the article, “The Black Death in Hereford, England: A demographic analysis of the Cathedral 14th-century plague mass graves and associated parish cemetery,” published in American Journal of Biological Anthropology. Click here to read it.
Top Image: The people of Tournai bury victims of the Black Death in 1349. Miniature by Pierart dou Tielt, c. 1353. KBR MS 13076–13077, fol. 24v.
Young adults appear to have been particularly vulnerable during the Black Death, according to new research comparing plague victims with people who died in Britain before the pandemic.
The study found that people aged 15 to 24 were nearly twice as common among Black Death burials at Hereford Cathedral as they were in three medieval cemeteries dating from before the arrival of plague. The findings provide further evidence that the Black Death may not have affected all age groups in the same way. Published in Antiquity, the research was carried out by Emilia R. Franklin, John Robb and Piers D. Mitchell of the University of Cambridge.
Comparing mortality before the Black Death
Previous research had already identified an unusually high proportion of young adults among plague victims buried in mass graves at Hereford Cathedral. The new study sought to determine how unusual that pattern was by establishing a clearer picture of mortality before the Black Death.
This is more difficult than it might seem. Although plague pits are closely associated with the pandemic, many Black Death victims were buried in ordinary parish cemeteries. Cemeteries used during and after the pandemic can therefore contain people who died from plague alongside those who died from other causes.
The researchers instead examined three cemeteries that pre-date the Black Death: Black Gate in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, St Dochdwy at Llandough in Wales, and Wharram Percy in North Yorkshire. Together, they provided a sample of 317 adults, which was compared with 73 adults from the Black Death mass graves at Hereford Cathedral. Ancient DNA testing has previously confirmed the presence of Yersinia pestis in the Hereford burials.
Despite representing different medieval communities, the three pre-plague cemeteries produced remarkably similar mortality patterns. Between 17 and 20 per cent of the adults at each site died between the ages of 15 and 24, while mortality peaked among those aged 25 to 34.
Young adults stand out among plague victims
The researchers combined the three cemeteries to create a pre-Black Death comparison group. When this was compared with the Hereford plague victims, the largest difference appeared among the youngest adults.
People aged 15 to 24 represented 18.3 per cent of the pre-Black Death sample, compared with 34.2 per cent of the Black Death burials. Those aged 25 to 34 accounted for 33.1 per cent of the pre-plague sample and 41.1 per cent of the plague victims. Among every subsequent age group, mortality was higher in the pre-Black Death population. The differences between the overall profiles were statistically significant.
As the researchers explain:
A high proportion of young adults followed by a mortality peak at 25–34 years likely indicates plague mortality, while a lower proportion of young adults followed by a mortality peak at 25–34 years is more likely to represent an attritional demography.
The important distinction is that young adulthood was already a dangerous period in medieval Britain. In the pre-plague cemeteries, mortality peaked among people aged 25 to 34. What distinguishes the Black Death burials is the much larger proportion of people who died between the ages of 15 and 24.
Why were young adults more vulnerable?
The researchers caution that the results do not necessarily mean that being young made someone biologically more susceptible to plague. Other circumstances could have contributed to the pattern. They offer two possibilities:
It is possible that there was a high proportion of young adults living in Hereford in the mid-fourteenth century. Those aged 32 or older would have survived the nation-wide Great Famine of 1315–1317 and it could be that the relatively low representation of individuals aged 35 or older within the Black Death burials reflects deaths during the Great Famine. It is also possible that aspects of medieval life placed young adults at greater risk of contracting, and dying of, plague. Documentary sources indicate that those of lower socioeconomic status had elevated mortality during the outbreak and younger people, with less accumulated wealth and resources, may have been particularly vulnerable.
Previous research at Hereford also found evidence that health earlier in life may have mattered. Signs of physiological stress during childhood, visible as defects in tooth enamel, were significantly more common among the Hereford plague victims than among people in the site’s ordinary cemetery. Similar research on London’s East Smithfield plague cemetery has associated childhood physiological stress with an increased risk of dying during the Black Death.
The new study strengthens earlier findings from Hereford by comparing the plague victims with people from several medieval communities who definitely lived before the arrival of the Black Death.
The article, “Before and after the Black Death: understanding catastrophic and attritional mortality,” by Emilia R. Franklin, John Robb and Piers D. Mitchell, appears in Antiquity. Click here to read it.
The trio also wrote the article, “The Black Death in Hereford, England: A demographic analysis of the Cathedral 14th-century plague mass graves and associated parish cemetery,” published in American Journal of Biological Anthropology. Click here to read it.
Top Image: The people of Tournai bury victims of the Black Death in 1349. Miniature by Pierart dou Tielt, c. 1353. KBR MS 13076–13077, fol. 24v.
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