Bioarchaeology of Past Epidemic-and Famine-Related Mass Burials with Respect to Recent Findings from the Czech Republic
Abstract
Irrespective of the reason for breaking usual burial customs, mass graves represent a valuable archive of population data over a short period, and thus offer a vast amount of information for bioarchaeological research. Herein, we present a selective review of research on past epidemic and famine die-offs and of new interdisciplinary approaches in this field of study.
We summarize the discoveries of epidemic- and famine-related graves that are temporally and spatially restricted to the medieval/early modern Czech territory, paying special attention to recently unearthed mass burials in Kutná Hora-Sedlec. These burial pits are historically and contextually associated with a famine in the early 14th century and with the Black Death in the mid-14th century.
To our knowledge, they represent the largest set of medieval mass graves not only in the Czech Republic but also on a European scale.