The volunteers excavated in six eastern counties, at 55 currently occupied rural locations also known to have been 14th century settlements. Photograph: University of Lincoln
Posted on 06/19/2016 5:11:53 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Scraps of broken pottery from test pits dug by thousands of members of the public have revealed the devastating impact of the Black Death in England, not just in the years 1346 to 1351 when the epidemic ripped Europe apart, but for decades or even centuries afterwards.
The quantity of sherds of everyday domestic pottery -- the most common of archaeological finds -- is a good indicator of the human population because of its widespread daily use, and the ease with which it can be broken and thrown away. By digging standard-sized test pits, then counting and comparing the broken pottery by number and weight from different date levels, a pattern emerges of humans living on a particular site.
Professor Carenza Lewis has analysed of tens of thousands of bits of datable broken pottery, excavated from almost 2,000 test pits in eastern England. The sherds, taken from the levels relating to the periods before and after the Black Death, suggest a population collapse of around 45%. In some areas, such as Binham, north Norfolk, where there was a 71% fall in the amount of pottery, the figure is much worse.
Lewis, famous from her years on Time Team, now professor of public understanding of research... University of Lincoln, has used the data to map the aftermath of the Black Death...
Lewis says that the devastation of the Black Death, regarded as exaggerated by some 20th century historians, was actually "on an eye-watering scale". Its true extent, she believes, was masked by eventual post-medieval regrowth.
Since her volunteers excavated only in six eastern counties, at 55 currently occupied rural locations also known to have been 14th century settlements, she believes her figures may be conservative, missing many places where the population was completely wiped out and the area permanently abandoned.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
The volunteers excavated in six eastern counties, at 55 currently occupied rural locations also known to have been 14th century settlements. Photograph: University of Lincoln
The black death, WWI and WWII- Times when western Civilization have almost vanished...
One impact was that wages more than doubled, and serfdom became obsolete because of the need for workers.
Please add me to your list?
The 1918 Flu Pandemic killed more people than either of those wars and possibly more than both combined.
Naturally, the population blamed the Jews (just like today).
Hey, you forgot man made climate change....
Yes, I’m being sarcastic.
I think we’re seeing it happen for good right about now.
The black death, WWI and WWII- Times when western Civilization have almost vanished...
= = =
And then we have bo, adding his ‘blackness’ and death to civilization, to complete the cycle.
“Naturally, the population blamed the Jews (just like today).”
Some did. The vast majority, however, blamed the sinfulness of Christians.
I lost a Grandfather (in New York) and two Great-Uncles (in Florida) to that flu epidemic... Two more Great-Uncles to the effects of Mustard Gas in WW1 a few years later!
It was the Black Death that changed the trajectory of Christianity. Pre-Black Death art focused on the Surmon on The Mount: a positive uplifting message of hope and love. Post Black Death, the DEATH of Christ is emphasized.
Coincidentally, that was the year my father was born, in Montpelier, Vermont.
The Black Death was so much worse than the Spanish Flu, WWI & WWII, combined. Possibly more actual dead, and definitely more on a percentage basis.
Exactly. It was the end of the Medieval Warm Period. You know, the historical event the IPCC emails said they had to “get rid of.”
Turns out the culprits are likely the Muslims, who introduced the plague to Europe by heaving plague-infested corpses over castle walls.
Perhaps that explains the elites’ mad drive for mass immigration into the West.
Bookmark black death
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