{"title":"与捷克共和国最近的发现有关的过去流行病和饥荒相关的集体埋葬的生物考古学","authors":"H. Brzobohatá, J. Frolík, Eliška Zazvonilová","doi":"10.24916/iansa.2019.1.6","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"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 epidemicand 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. IANSA 2019 ● X/1 ● 79–87 Hana Brzobohatá, Jan Frolík, Eliška Zazvonilová: Bioarchaeology of Past Epidemicand Famine-Related Mass Burials with Respect to Recent Findings from the Czech Republic 80 samples have shown an increased mortality in non-adults (Geber, 2014), and chronologically younger datasets indicate increased mortality at both extremes of the age spectrum, i.e. children and in elderly persons (Morgan, 2013). As for the epidemic mortality, the most lethal killer – plague – was not selective for sex and male/female ratios of plague burial grounds did not significantly differ from preand post-epidemic cemeteries (Signoli et al., 2002; De Witte, 2009). Less frequently, excess female mortality was documented in both urban and rural contexts (Curtis, Roosen, 2017). Another of the factors explored and potentially impacting plague mortality profiles was ageat-death, and DeWitte (2010a) has shown that older adults showed somewhat higher risks of dying during the epidemic compared to the younger. In general, two different types of mortality can be found in skeletal assemblages: catastrophic and attritional (Margerison, Knüsel, 2002). A high percentage of infant deaths, a low number of adolescent deaths, and an increasing mortality rate throughout adulthood would be consistent with attritional (normal) mortality, while an increased risk of death occurring in all age categories reflects a short-term catastrophe (Gowland, Chamberlain, 2005). If the population was affected by an epidemic, deceased individuals were often buried in mass graves because there was not the time, nor space to bury them individually. If the epidemic killed people indiscriminately regardless of age and sex, then the mass graves would represent an unbiased sample of the population. However, the results of different studies (e.g. DeWitte, 2010b; Galanaud et al., 2015; Crespo, Lawrenz, 2016) have shown that this is not the case, but rather, that susceptibility to death varies during sudden events such as epidemics, which have been referred to as heterogeneity in frailty (Wood et al., 1992). Recent research has indicated that one of the worst demographic crises, the Black Death, caused selective mortality and removed the frailest of the population (DeWitte, 2016). The concept of frailty, defined as a state of decreased resistance to stressors (Fried et al., 2001), has been discussed in several recent bioarchaeological studies (DeWitte, Wood, 2008; DeWitte, 2010b). Factors typically used to evaluate frailty in epidemiological research are generally not observable in skeletal remains. In archaeological populations, only skeletal and dental indicators of stress indicate pathological conditions in an individual. Marklein et al. (2016) proposed a method based on assessing the frailty of living populations applicable to bioarchaeological populations, the skeletal frailty index (SFI). This method provides a frailty score for everyone in a population based on the presence or absence of 13 skeletal and dental indicators. This method should provide a better understanding of the overall health of past populations rather than simply measuring mortality (Marklein et al., 2016). Demographic composition and indicators of skeletal stress are essential for better understanding health and mortality. By comparing the prevalence of stress indicators (e.g. cribra orbitalia, linear enamel hypoplasia, periosteal new bone formation) in individuals buried in attritional (normal) and mass graves, the level of stress and risk of death can be determined. Higher prevalence of stress lesions would be expected in mass graves. However, the relationship between stress lesions and mortality is not straightforward, demonstrating the osteological paradox phenomenon (Wood et al., 1992; DeWitte, Stojanowski, 2015). The presence of stress lesions does not necessarily mean that the individual was healthier compared with those without lesions, but rather, some individuals without stress lesions died before the stress was reflected in the skeleton. The most detectable skeletal markers require several weeks to form; thus, we can assume that individuals with lesions must have at least survived this long. Bone is slower to respond to the effects of stress than soft tissue. Therefore, the presence of stress indicators indicates severe or prolonged stress. Instead of comparing the prevalence of skeletal stress indicators, they should be evaluated in terms of mortality and their effect on survivorship (Temple, Goodman, 2014). In the case of mass graves, cultural or historical context can help to understand whether individuals with a higher prevalence of stress were frailer. Although the demographic composition of a population suffering a disease epidemic differs from that of a non-epidemic population, some factors can influence the age distribution of examined samples. Taphonomic factors that influence infant skeletal remains can make them invisible in the archaeological record, consequently biasing the final distribution. When historical and cultural conditions are unknown and only demographic composition is available as evidence of a demographic crisis, differences in skeletal preservation may distort results to resemble attritional mortality (Margerison, Knüsel, 2002; Kyle et al., 2018). Ageing presents further problems in bioarchaeological research. Poorly preserved skeletons, systematic underestimation of old individuals, or circumstances affecting skeletal aging, are some of the factors that complicate the estimation of age at death of adults (Cave, Oxenham, 2016). Furthermore, inconsistency in the use of age-estimation methods causes problems when comparing burial grounds, or their apparent normal mortality (Bramanti et al., 2018). Nevertheless, by combining methods from social and biological sciences in the study of historical mass graves, we can more thoroughly interpret the information held in the bones and, thanks to this transdisciplinary approach, better reconstruct daily life in times of catastrophes. 2. Difficulties in retrospectively diagnosing infectious diseases Previous studies of ancient disease episodes have largely relied on historical and archaeological data alone, such as skeletons, mummified remains, ancient texts, church records, burial registers, and art works (Mitchell, 2011; Signoli, 2012; Smith et al., 2012). However, the most common infections of these times are osteologically invisible, and written records are often inaccurate. Thus, it is not possible to come to a IANSA 2019 ● X/1 ● 79–87 Hana Brzobohatá, Jan Frolík, Eliška Zazvonilová: Bioarchaeology of Past Epidemicand Famine-Related Mass Burials with Respect to Recent Findings from the Czech Republic 81 modern biological diagnosis for many past epidemics. By medieval times most of the acute infectious diseases were universal in the Old World and had settled into distinct cycles of epidemics, mainly affecting young children (Crawford, 2007). Considering key environmental and epidemiological factors of medieval towns, nearly all microbial and viral transmission routes were facilitated by poor sanitation conditions, contaminated water, and overpopulation. Although many of the worst pre-industrial epidemics appear to have been caused by the bubonic plague, the range of epidemics that are referred to as “plagues” is much larger (Alfani, Murphy, 2017). The causes of epidemics referred to as “peste” or “pestilential” by contemporaries must be investigated separately because it cannot be assumed that a ‘‘plague’’ in one place was due to the same specific microbial agent as those in other places, even during the Black Death (Carmichael, 2008). In particular, populations weakened by malnutrition/starvation could have easily succumbed to influenza, typhus, dysentery, smallpox, typhoid fever, relapsing fever, or another highly-transmissible pathogen (Smith et al., 2012; Andam et al., 2016; Guellil et al., 2018). For a long time, the most interesting topic concerning the scholars researching historic epidemic assemblages has been determining the causative organism of the bubonic plague (Beauchamp, 2012). The most likely pathogen to account for the plague epidemics is Yersinia pestis. The actual aetiology of this disease has long been controversial, and a group of researchers have argued in favour of other potential microbial agents of the medieval episodes of great mortality. Alternative hypotheses included bacillus anthracis (Twigg, 1985), a filovirus, or a pathogen that is now extinct (Scott, Duncan, 2001; Cohn, 2003; Duncan, Scott, 2005). They argued that: the differences between the Black Death and current manifestations of the plague are too great to have the same aetiology (Cohn, 2002); the epidemiological dynamics of the medieval Black Death based on historical records were consistent with a viral pathogen spreading as an aerosol or through direct contact between persons (Bossak, Welford, 2009). Other inconsistencies have been pointed out by sceptics, including those between the clinical and epidemiological characteristics of pla","PeriodicalId":38054,"journal":{"name":"Interdisciplinaria Archaeologica","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2000,"publicationDate":"2019-09-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"4","resultStr":"{\"title\":\"Bioarchaeology of Past Epidemic- and Famine-Related Mass Burials with Respect to Recent Findings from the Czech Republic\",\"authors\":\"H. Brzobohatá, J. Frolík, Eliška Zazvonilová\",\"doi\":\"10.24916/iansa.2019.1.6\",\"DOIUrl\":null,\"url\":null,\"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 epidemicand 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. IANSA 2019 ● X/1 ● 79–87 Hana Brzobohatá, Jan Frolík, Eliška Zazvonilová: Bioarchaeology of Past Epidemicand Famine-Related Mass Burials with Respect to Recent Findings from the Czech Republic 80 samples have shown an increased mortality in non-adults (Geber, 2014), and chronologically younger datasets indicate increased mortality at both extremes of the age spectrum, i.e. children and in elderly persons (Morgan, 2013). As for the epidemic mortality, the most lethal killer – plague – was not selective for sex and male/female ratios of plague burial grounds did not significantly differ from preand post-epidemic cemeteries (Signoli et al., 2002; De Witte, 2009). Less frequently, excess female mortality was documented in both urban and rural contexts (Curtis, Roosen, 2017). Another of the factors explored and potentially impacting plague mortality profiles was ageat-death, and DeWitte (2010a) has shown that older adults showed somewhat higher risks of dying during the epidemic compared to the younger. In general, two different types of mortality can be found in skeletal assemblages: catastrophic and attritional (Margerison, Knüsel, 2002). A high percentage of infant deaths, a low number of adolescent deaths, and an increasing mortality rate throughout adulthood would be consistent with attritional (normal) mortality, while an increased risk of death occurring in all age categories reflects a short-term catastrophe (Gowland, Chamberlain, 2005). If the population was affected by an epidemic, deceased individuals were often buried in mass graves because there was not the time, nor space to bury them individually. If the epidemic killed people indiscriminately regardless of age and sex, then the mass graves would represent an unbiased sample of the population. However, the results of different studies (e.g. DeWitte, 2010b; Galanaud et al., 2015; Crespo, Lawrenz, 2016) have shown that this is not the case, but rather, that susceptibility to death varies during sudden events such as epidemics, which have been referred to as heterogeneity in frailty (Wood et al., 1992). Recent research has indicated that one of the worst demographic crises, the Black Death, caused selective mortality and removed the frailest of the population (DeWitte, 2016). The concept of frailty, defined as a state of decreased resistance to stressors (Fried et al., 2001), has been discussed in several recent bioarchaeological studies (DeWitte, Wood, 2008; DeWitte, 2010b). Factors typically used to evaluate frailty in epidemiological research are generally not observable in skeletal remains. In archaeological populations, only skeletal and dental indicators of stress indicate pathological conditions in an individual. Marklein et al. (2016) proposed a method based on assessing the frailty of living populations applicable to bioarchaeological populations, the skeletal frailty index (SFI). This method provides a frailty score for everyone in a population based on the presence or absence of 13 skeletal and dental indicators. This method should provide a better understanding of the overall health of past populations rather than simply measuring mortality (Marklein et al., 2016). Demographic composition and indicators of skeletal stress are essential for better understanding health and mortality. By comparing the prevalence of stress indicators (e.g. cribra orbitalia, linear enamel hypoplasia, periosteal new bone formation) in individuals buried in attritional (normal) and mass graves, the level of stress and risk of death can be determined. Higher prevalence of stress lesions would be expected in mass graves. However, the relationship between stress lesions and mortality is not straightforward, demonstrating the osteological paradox phenomenon (Wood et al., 1992; DeWitte, Stojanowski, 2015). The presence of stress lesions does not necessarily mean that the individual was healthier compared with those without lesions, but rather, some individuals without stress lesions died before the stress was reflected in the skeleton. The most detectable skeletal markers require several weeks to form; thus, we can assume that individuals with lesions must have at least survived this long. Bone is slower to respond to the effects of stress than soft tissue. Therefore, the presence of stress indicators indicates severe or prolonged stress. Instead of comparing the prevalence of skeletal stress indicators, they should be evaluated in terms of mortality and their effect on survivorship (Temple, Goodman, 2014). In the case of mass graves, cultural or historical context can help to understand whether individuals with a higher prevalence of stress were frailer. Although the demographic composition of a population suffering a disease epidemic differs from that of a non-epidemic population, some factors can influence the age distribution of examined samples. Taphonomic factors that influence infant skeletal remains can make them invisible in the archaeological record, consequently biasing the final distribution. When historical and cultural conditions are unknown and only demographic composition is available as evidence of a demographic crisis, differences in skeletal preservation may distort results to resemble attritional mortality (Margerison, Knüsel, 2002; Kyle et al., 2018). Ageing presents further problems in bioarchaeological research. Poorly preserved skeletons, systematic underestimation of old individuals, or circumstances affecting skeletal aging, are some of the factors that complicate the estimation of age at death of adults (Cave, Oxenham, 2016). Furthermore, inconsistency in the use of age-estimation methods causes problems when comparing burial grounds, or their apparent normal mortality (Bramanti et al., 2018). Nevertheless, by combining methods from social and biological sciences in the study of historical mass graves, we can more thoroughly interpret the information held in the bones and, thanks to this transdisciplinary approach, better reconstruct daily life in times of catastrophes. 2. Difficulties in retrospectively diagnosing infectious diseases Previous studies of ancient disease episodes have largely relied on historical and archaeological data alone, such as skeletons, mummified remains, ancient texts, church records, burial registers, and art works (Mitchell, 2011; Signoli, 2012; Smith et al., 2012). However, the most common infections of these times are osteologically invisible, and written records are often inaccurate. Thus, it is not possible to come to a IANSA 2019 ● X/1 ● 79–87 Hana Brzobohatá, Jan Frolík, Eliška Zazvonilová: Bioarchaeology of Past Epidemicand Famine-Related Mass Burials with Respect to Recent Findings from the Czech Republic 81 modern biological diagnosis for many past epidemics. By medieval times most of the acute infectious diseases were universal in the Old World and had settled into distinct cycles of epidemics, mainly affecting young children (Crawford, 2007). Considering key environmental and epidemiological factors of medieval towns, nearly all microbial and viral transmission routes were facilitated by poor sanitation conditions, contaminated water, and overpopulation. Although many of the worst pre-industrial epidemics appear to have been caused by the bubonic plague, the range of epidemics that are referred to as “plagues” is much larger (Alfani, Murphy, 2017). The causes of epidemics referred to as “peste” or “pestilential” by contemporaries must be investigated separately because it cannot be assumed that a ‘‘plague’’ in one place was due to the same specific microbial agent as those in other places, even during the Black Death (Carmichael, 2008). In particular, populations weakened by malnutrition/starvation could have easily succumbed to influenza, typhus, dysentery, smallpox, typhoid fever, relapsing fever, or another highly-transmissible pathogen (Smith et al., 2012; Andam et al., 2016; Guellil et al., 2018). For a long time, the most interesting topic concerning the scholars researching historic epidemic assemblages has been determining the causative organism of the bubonic plague (Beauchamp, 2012). The most likely pathogen to account for the plague epidemics is Yersinia pestis. The actual aetiology of this disease has long been controversial, and a group of researchers have argued in favour of other potential microbial agents of the medieval episodes of great mortality. Alternative hypotheses included bacillus anthracis (Twigg, 1985), a filovirus, or a pathogen that is now extinct (Scott, Duncan, 2001; Cohn, 2003; Duncan, Scott, 2005). They argued that: the differences between the Black Death and current manifestations of the plague are too great to have the same aetiology (Cohn, 2002); the epidemiological dynamics of the medieval Black Death based on historical records were consistent with a viral pathogen spreading as an aerosol or through direct contact between persons (Bossak, Welford, 2009). 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引用次数: 4
摘要
不管打破通常的埋葬习俗的原因是什么,万人坑代表了短期内人口数据的宝贵档案,从而为生物考古研究提供了大量信息。在此,我们对过去流行病和饥荒死亡的研究以及这一研究领域的新跨学科方法进行了选择性回顾。我们总结了与流行病饥荒有关的坟墓的发现,这些坟墓在时间和空间上都局限于中世纪/现代早期的捷克领土,特别注意最近在库特纳<e:1>霍拉-塞德莱克出土的大规模墓葬。这些埋葬坑在历史上和语境上都与14世纪早期的饥荒和14世纪中期的黑死病有关。据我们所知,它们不仅是捷克共和国,而且是欧洲规模最大的中世纪乱葬坑。Hana brzobohat<e:1>, Jan Frolík, Eliška zazvonilov<e:1>:与捷克共和国最近发现的80个样本相比,过去流行病和饥荒相关的大规模埋葬的生物考古学表明,非成年人的死亡率有所增加(Geber, 2014),年龄更小的数据集表明,年龄范围的两个极端,即儿童和老年人的死亡率都有所增加(Morgan, 2013)。至于流行病死亡率,最致命的杀手——鼠疫——对性别没有选择性,鼠疫墓地的男女比例与流行病前和后的墓地没有显著差异(Signoli等人,2002;De Witte, 2009)。在不太常见的情况下,城市和农村都记录了过高的女性死亡率(Curtis, Roosen, 2017)。另一个探索并可能影响鼠疫死亡率概况的因素是年龄死亡,DeWitte (2010a)表明,与年轻人相比,老年人在疫情期间的死亡风险更高。一般来说,在骨骼组合中可以发现两种不同类型的死亡:灾难性和减损性(Margerison, kn<s:1> sel, 2002)。婴儿死亡率高,青少年死亡率低,整个成年期死亡率不断上升,这与消耗(正常)死亡率是一致的,而所有年龄组的死亡风险增加反映了短期灾难(Gowland, Chamberlain, 2005年)。如果人口受到流行病的影响,死者往往被埋在乱葬坑里,因为没有时间和空间单独埋葬他们。如果流行病不分年龄和性别不分青红皂白地杀死人,那么万人坑就代表了人口的公正样本。然而,不同的研究结果(如DeWitte, 2010b;Galanaud et al., 2015;Crespo, Lawrenz, 2016)的研究表明,事实并非如此,而是在流行病等突发事件中,对死亡的易感性有所不同,这被称为脆弱性的异质性(Wood等人,1992)。最近的研究表明,最严重的人口危机之一,黑死病,造成了选择性死亡,并消除了最脆弱的人口(DeWitte, 2016)。脆弱的概念被定义为对压力源抵抗力下降的一种状态(Fried et al., 2001),在最近的几项生物考古研究中得到了讨论(DeWitte, Wood, 2008;DeWitte, 2010 b)。在流行病学研究中通常用于评估虚弱的因素通常在骨骼遗骸中无法观察到。在考古种群中,只有骨骼和牙齿的应激指标表明个体的病理状况。Marklein etal .(2016)提出了一种基于评估生物考古种群脆弱性的方法,即骨骼脆弱指数(SFI)。这种方法根据13种骨骼和牙齿指标的存在与否为人群中的每个人提供了一个脆弱评分。这种方法应该能更好地了解过去种群的整体健康状况,而不是简单地测量死亡率(Marklein et al., 2016)。人口构成和骨骼应力指标对于更好地了解健康和死亡率至关重要。通过比较被埋在普通(正常)和乱葬坑中的个体的应激指标(如眶膜、线性牙釉质发育不全、骨膜新生骨形成)的流行程度,可以确定应激水平和死亡风险。在万人坑中,应激性损伤的患病率预计会更高。然而,应激性损伤与死亡率之间的关系并不直接,这证明了骨学悖论现象(Wood et al., 1992;DeWitte, Stojanowski, 2015)。应激性病变的存在并不一定意味着个体比没有应激性病变的个体更健康,而是一些没有应激性病变的个体在应激反应到骨骼之前就死亡了。 最容易检测到的骨骼标记需要几个星期才能形成;因此,我们可以假设有病变的个体至少存活了这么长时间。骨骼对压力的反应比软组织慢。因此,压力指标的存在表明严重或长期的压力。与其比较骨骼应力指标的流行程度,不如从死亡率及其对生存率的影响来评估它们(Temple, Goodman, 2014)。在万人坑的情况下,文化或历史背景可以帮助我们了解压力更大的人是否更脆弱。虽然疾病流行人口的人口构成不同于非流行病人口,但一些因素可以影响所检查样本的年龄分布。影响婴儿骨骼遗骸的语音学因素可能使它们在考古记录中不可见,从而影响最终的分布。当历史和文化条件未知,只有人口构成可以作为人口危机的证据时,骨骼保存的差异可能会扭曲结果,类似于消耗死亡率(Margerison, kn<s:1> sel, 2002;Kyle et al., 2018)。老化在生物考古研究中提出了进一步的问题。保存不良的骨骼,对老年人的系统性低估,或影响骨骼老化的环境,是使成年人死亡年龄估计复杂化的一些因素(Cave, Oxenham, 2016)。此外,使用年龄估计方法的不一致会在比较墓地或其明显的正常死亡率时造成问题(Bramanti等人,2018)。然而,通过结合社会科学和生物科学的方法来研究历史万人坑,我们可以更彻底地解释骨头中保存的信息,并且由于这种跨学科的方法,我们可以更好地重建灾难时期的日常生活。2. 以前对古代疾病发作的研究在很大程度上仅依赖历史和考古数据,如骨骼、木乃伊遗骸、古代文本、教堂记录、埋葬登记册和艺术作品(Mitchell, 2011;Signoli, 2012;Smith et al., 2012)。然而,这些时代最常见的感染在骨学上是看不见的,书面记录往往是不准确的。因此,不可能参加IANSA 2019●X/1●79-87 Hana brzobohat<e:1>, Jan Frolík, Eliška zazvonilov<e:1>:过去流行病与饥荒相关的集体埋葬的生物考古学与捷克共和国的最新发现81过去许多流行病的现代生物学诊断。到中世纪时期,大多数急性传染病在旧大陆是普遍存在的,并形成了不同的流行病周期,主要影响幼儿(Crawford, 2007年)。考虑到中世纪城镇的关键环境和流行病学因素,几乎所有微生物和病毒的传播途径都因卫生条件差、水污染和人口过多而更加便利。虽然工业化前许多最严重的流行病似乎是由黑死病引起的,但被称为“瘟疫”的流行病的范围要大得多(Alfani, Murphy, 2017)。被同时代人称为“虫害”或“瘟疫”的流行病的原因必须单独调查,因为不能假设一个地方的“瘟疫”与其他地方的“瘟疫”是由相同的特定微生物剂引起的,即使在黑死病期间也是如此(Carmichael, 2008年)。特别是,因营养不良/饥饿而虚弱的人群很容易死于流感、斑疹伤寒、痢疾、天花、伤寒、回复热或另一种高传染性病原体(Smith等人,2012;Andam et al., 2016;Guellil et al., 2018)。长期以来,研究历史流行组合的学者们最感兴趣的话题是确定黑死病的致病生物(Beauchamp, 2012)。鼠疫流行最可能的病原体是鼠疫耶尔森氏菌。这种疾病的实际病因长期以来一直存在争议,一组研究人员认为,其他可能的微生物因素导致了中世纪的高死亡率。其他假设包括炭疽芽孢杆菌(Twigg, 1985)、线状病毒或现已灭绝的病原体(Scott, Duncan, 2001;科恩,2003;邓肯,斯科特,2005)。他们认为:黑死病与当前鼠疫表现之间的差异太大,不可能具有相同的病因学(Cohn, 2002);根据历史记录,中世纪黑死病的流行病学动态与病毒病原体以气溶胶或通过人与人之间的直接接触传播相一致(Bossak, Welford, 2009年)。
Bioarchaeology of Past Epidemic- and Famine-Related Mass Burials with Respect to Recent Findings from the Czech Republic
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 epidemicand 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. IANSA 2019 ● X/1 ● 79–87 Hana Brzobohatá, Jan Frolík, Eliška Zazvonilová: Bioarchaeology of Past Epidemicand Famine-Related Mass Burials with Respect to Recent Findings from the Czech Republic 80 samples have shown an increased mortality in non-adults (Geber, 2014), and chronologically younger datasets indicate increased mortality at both extremes of the age spectrum, i.e. children and in elderly persons (Morgan, 2013). As for the epidemic mortality, the most lethal killer – plague – was not selective for sex and male/female ratios of plague burial grounds did not significantly differ from preand post-epidemic cemeteries (Signoli et al., 2002; De Witte, 2009). Less frequently, excess female mortality was documented in both urban and rural contexts (Curtis, Roosen, 2017). Another of the factors explored and potentially impacting plague mortality profiles was ageat-death, and DeWitte (2010a) has shown that older adults showed somewhat higher risks of dying during the epidemic compared to the younger. In general, two different types of mortality can be found in skeletal assemblages: catastrophic and attritional (Margerison, Knüsel, 2002). A high percentage of infant deaths, a low number of adolescent deaths, and an increasing mortality rate throughout adulthood would be consistent with attritional (normal) mortality, while an increased risk of death occurring in all age categories reflects a short-term catastrophe (Gowland, Chamberlain, 2005). If the population was affected by an epidemic, deceased individuals were often buried in mass graves because there was not the time, nor space to bury them individually. If the epidemic killed people indiscriminately regardless of age and sex, then the mass graves would represent an unbiased sample of the population. However, the results of different studies (e.g. DeWitte, 2010b; Galanaud et al., 2015; Crespo, Lawrenz, 2016) have shown that this is not the case, but rather, that susceptibility to death varies during sudden events such as epidemics, which have been referred to as heterogeneity in frailty (Wood et al., 1992). Recent research has indicated that one of the worst demographic crises, the Black Death, caused selective mortality and removed the frailest of the population (DeWitte, 2016). The concept of frailty, defined as a state of decreased resistance to stressors (Fried et al., 2001), has been discussed in several recent bioarchaeological studies (DeWitte, Wood, 2008; DeWitte, 2010b). Factors typically used to evaluate frailty in epidemiological research are generally not observable in skeletal remains. In archaeological populations, only skeletal and dental indicators of stress indicate pathological conditions in an individual. Marklein et al. (2016) proposed a method based on assessing the frailty of living populations applicable to bioarchaeological populations, the skeletal frailty index (SFI). This method provides a frailty score for everyone in a population based on the presence or absence of 13 skeletal and dental indicators. This method should provide a better understanding of the overall health of past populations rather than simply measuring mortality (Marklein et al., 2016). Demographic composition and indicators of skeletal stress are essential for better understanding health and mortality. By comparing the prevalence of stress indicators (e.g. cribra orbitalia, linear enamel hypoplasia, periosteal new bone formation) in individuals buried in attritional (normal) and mass graves, the level of stress and risk of death can be determined. Higher prevalence of stress lesions would be expected in mass graves. However, the relationship between stress lesions and mortality is not straightforward, demonstrating the osteological paradox phenomenon (Wood et al., 1992; DeWitte, Stojanowski, 2015). The presence of stress lesions does not necessarily mean that the individual was healthier compared with those without lesions, but rather, some individuals without stress lesions died before the stress was reflected in the skeleton. The most detectable skeletal markers require several weeks to form; thus, we can assume that individuals with lesions must have at least survived this long. Bone is slower to respond to the effects of stress than soft tissue. Therefore, the presence of stress indicators indicates severe or prolonged stress. Instead of comparing the prevalence of skeletal stress indicators, they should be evaluated in terms of mortality and their effect on survivorship (Temple, Goodman, 2014). In the case of mass graves, cultural or historical context can help to understand whether individuals with a higher prevalence of stress were frailer. Although the demographic composition of a population suffering a disease epidemic differs from that of a non-epidemic population, some factors can influence the age distribution of examined samples. Taphonomic factors that influence infant skeletal remains can make them invisible in the archaeological record, consequently biasing the final distribution. When historical and cultural conditions are unknown and only demographic composition is available as evidence of a demographic crisis, differences in skeletal preservation may distort results to resemble attritional mortality (Margerison, Knüsel, 2002; Kyle et al., 2018). Ageing presents further problems in bioarchaeological research. Poorly preserved skeletons, systematic underestimation of old individuals, or circumstances affecting skeletal aging, are some of the factors that complicate the estimation of age at death of adults (Cave, Oxenham, 2016). Furthermore, inconsistency in the use of age-estimation methods causes problems when comparing burial grounds, or their apparent normal mortality (Bramanti et al., 2018). Nevertheless, by combining methods from social and biological sciences in the study of historical mass graves, we can more thoroughly interpret the information held in the bones and, thanks to this transdisciplinary approach, better reconstruct daily life in times of catastrophes. 2. Difficulties in retrospectively diagnosing infectious diseases Previous studies of ancient disease episodes have largely relied on historical and archaeological data alone, such as skeletons, mummified remains, ancient texts, church records, burial registers, and art works (Mitchell, 2011; Signoli, 2012; Smith et al., 2012). However, the most common infections of these times are osteologically invisible, and written records are often inaccurate. Thus, it is not possible to come to a IANSA 2019 ● X/1 ● 79–87 Hana Brzobohatá, Jan Frolík, Eliška Zazvonilová: Bioarchaeology of Past Epidemicand Famine-Related Mass Burials with Respect to Recent Findings from the Czech Republic 81 modern biological diagnosis for many past epidemics. By medieval times most of the acute infectious diseases were universal in the Old World and had settled into distinct cycles of epidemics, mainly affecting young children (Crawford, 2007). Considering key environmental and epidemiological factors of medieval towns, nearly all microbial and viral transmission routes were facilitated by poor sanitation conditions, contaminated water, and overpopulation. Although many of the worst pre-industrial epidemics appear to have been caused by the bubonic plague, the range of epidemics that are referred to as “plagues” is much larger (Alfani, Murphy, 2017). The causes of epidemics referred to as “peste” or “pestilential” by contemporaries must be investigated separately because it cannot be assumed that a ‘‘plague’’ in one place was due to the same specific microbial agent as those in other places, even during the Black Death (Carmichael, 2008). In particular, populations weakened by malnutrition/starvation could have easily succumbed to influenza, typhus, dysentery, smallpox, typhoid fever, relapsing fever, or another highly-transmissible pathogen (Smith et al., 2012; Andam et al., 2016; Guellil et al., 2018). For a long time, the most interesting topic concerning the scholars researching historic epidemic assemblages has been determining the causative organism of the bubonic plague (Beauchamp, 2012). The most likely pathogen to account for the plague epidemics is Yersinia pestis. The actual aetiology of this disease has long been controversial, and a group of researchers have argued in favour of other potential microbial agents of the medieval episodes of great mortality. Alternative hypotheses included bacillus anthracis (Twigg, 1985), a filovirus, or a pathogen that is now extinct (Scott, Duncan, 2001; Cohn, 2003; Duncan, Scott, 2005). They argued that: the differences between the Black Death and current manifestations of the plague are too great to have the same aetiology (Cohn, 2002); the epidemiological dynamics of the medieval Black Death based on historical records were consistent with a viral pathogen spreading as an aerosol or through direct contact between persons (Bossak, Welford, 2009). Other inconsistencies have been pointed out by sceptics, including those between the clinical and epidemiological characteristics of pla