A mass grave containing the remains of dozens of victims of the Black Death has been discovered in rural Lincolnshire, offering new evidence of the plague's devastating impact on the English countryside. The grave, found near the ruined Augustinian priory of Thornton Abbey, has been dated to the 14th century, almost certainly to the 1348-9 outbreak.
Archaeologists from the University of Sheffield excavated the site, uncovering the bodies of at least 48 men, women and children, laid in a sandy pit within days of each other. DNA tests confirmed the presence of the plague pathogen, Yersinia pestis, in the remains. The discovery is considered of national importance as it is the first rural mass grave from the Black Death found in England.
Hugh Willmott, senior lecturer in European historical archaeology at the University of Sheffield, who led the excavation, said: “One of the assumptions in the past has been that perhaps you get mass graves in towns where you have a higher density of people, whereas in villages people were being buried as normal in the parish churchyard. But actually what this suggests is that this was a rural community that couldn’t cope, and when the Black Death arrived, the normal system for doing things broke down.”
The grave was discovered by chance during a survey of the priory grounds. Nearby, archaeologists found the site of a medieval hospital attached to the priory, suggesting the dead or dying were brought there as the plague struck, overwhelming the canons who were then forced to bury them together. Willmott noted that more than half of the victims were children, and despite the crisis, the bodies were shrouded and laid carefully side by side, indicating an effort to treat them with respect.
The findings, published in the journal Antiquity, provide a rare snapshot of rural catastrophe during the Black Death, which killed about half of England's population within 18 months. While a few plague mass graves have been excavated in London, nothing comparable has been found in a rural context until now.
