Health in urban late medieval North-West Europe : a bioarchaeological study of Caen, Canterbury and Ghent
Over half of the global population currently lives in an urban environment and this is still increasing rapidly in developing countries. This thesis aims to provide a comparative picture of health in the rapidly developing urban centres in late medieval NW Europe - here defined as northern France, England and Belgium - through bioarchaeological analysis. This study focused on macroscopic methods and âstress indicatorsâ (cribra orbitalia, dental enamel hypoplasia, adult stature and periosteal reaction on the tibiae) as a proxy for health and sanitation in these populations and respiratory disease (periosteal rib lesions and maxillary sinusitis) as a proxy for air quality. A 100 adult skeletons were analysed from the DarnĂ©tal cemetery of Caen (12th â 18th century AD), northern France, which had a reputation for poor sanitation. A further 100 adult skeletons were analysed from the cemetery of St. Gregoryâs priory in Canterbury (12th â 16th century AD), whose economy is based around entertaining pilgrims and travellers. Lastly, The St. Pieter parish in Ghent (12th â 18th century AD) occupies a unique position on the edge of the town and 83 adult skeletons were analysed from this site. The skeletal
Gernay, Marieke Josy Chantal
Health in urban late medieval North-West Europe : a bioarchaeological study of Caen, Canterbury and Ghent. Over half of the global population currently lives in an urban environment and this is still increasing rapidly in developing countries. This thesis aims to provide a comparative picture of health in the rapidly developing urban centres in late medieval NW Europe - here defined as northern France, England and Belgium - through bioarchaeological analysis. This study focused on macroscopic methods and âstress indicatorsâ (cribra orbitalia, dental enamel hypoplasia, adult stature and periosteal reaction on the tibiae) as a proxy for health and sanitation in these populations and respiratory disease (periosteal rib lesions and maxillary sinusitis) as a proxy for air quality. A 100 adult skeletons were analysed from the DarnĂ©tal cemetery of Caen (12th â 18th century AD), northern France, which had a reputation for poor sanitation. A further 100 adult skeletons were analysed from the cemetery of St. Gregoryâs priory in Canterbury (12th â 16th century AD), whose economy is based around entertaining pilgrims and travellers. Lastly, The St. Pieter parish in Ghent (12th â 18th century AD) occupies a unique position on the edge of the town and 83 adult skeletons were analysed from this site. The skeletal
health urban late_medieval north west europe bioarchaeological study canterbury half global population currently live urban_environment still increase rapidly develop country aim_provide comparative picture health rapidly develop urban_centre late_medieval europe define northern_france england belgium bioarchaeological analysis study_focus macroscopic method stress indicator dental_enamel adult stature reaction tibia proxy health sanitation population disease rib lesion proxy air quality adult_skeleton analyse cemetery northern_france reputation poor sanitation adult_skeleton analyse cemetery gregory priory canterbury whose economy base_around entertain pilgrims traveller lastly parish occupy unique position edge town adult_skeleton analyse site skeletal