The researchers studied the remains of more than 300 individuals of diverse social backgrounds, buried in three different cemeteries in the city from the 10th to the 14th centuries.
The Cambridge University team examined the bones of a parish cemetery for working people, a charity hospital where the sick and poor were supported, and a convent for the rich, detailing each break and fracture to create a barometer of social inequality.
X-ray analysis of the bones revealed different levels of difficulty (accidents, work injuries or violence) across the social spectrum.
Of the three sites, the remains excavated at the Hospital de Sant Joan Evangelista – a 12th-century house for the needy – contained the lowest fractures. Many residents had skeletal evidence of chronic diseases such as tuberculosis and would have been unable to work.
About 44% of the working people had bone fractures, compared to 32% of the people in the convent and 27% of those buried in the hospital. Meanwhile, bone fractures were more common in men (40%) than in women (26%).
“Comparing the skeletal trauma of buried remains in various places in a city like Cambridge, we can assess the dangers of everyday life experienced by different spheres of medieval society,” said Jenna Dittmar, lead author of the study, published Monday in the American newspaper. Journal of Physical Anthropology.
“We can see that regular workers had a higher risk of injury compared to monks and their benefactors or the most protected inmates of the hospital,” said Dittmar, an associate researcher at the McDonald’s Institute for Archaeological Research. the University of Cambridge.
“These were people who spent their days working long hours doing heavy manual labor. In the city, people worked in trades and crafts such as stonemasonry and blacksmithing or as general workers. Outside the city, many spent the dawn until dusk doing bone crushing work in the fields or caring for the cattle, ”he added.
The team found that physical trauma was prevalent across the social spectrum, but things were more difficult for the poorest people, who had the weight of physical work.
However, the most extreme injury was detected in a monk, who had complete fractures in half of the femurs, while violence-related skeletal injuries were found in approximately 4% of the population.
“We can see this inequality in the bones of medieval Cambridge residents. However, severe trauma prevailed across the social spectrum. Life was harder in the end, but life was hard everywhere,” Dittmar added. .