The Black Death cemetery, East Smithfield, London

The East Smithfield Black Death cemetery was excavated in 1986–8 as part of the Royal Mint site. Founded in 1348/9, it was one of two emergency burial grounds established when the Black Death plague came to London. This report presents the results from the only large-scale excavation and post-excavation analysis of a proven Black Death cemetery in this country and is indisputably of international importance in terms of its archaeology and the human bone assemblage derived from the c 759 burials found. The burial practices and the cemetery population are analysed and discussed in relation to Black Death studies in London and elsewhere.

Authors: Ian Grainger, Duncan Hawkins, Lynne Cowal, Richard Mikulski

Sites: MIN84, MIN86
See a map of these sites

Series: Monograph Series 43

Published by: MoLAS 2008. ISBN 978-1-901992-82-3. Hb 63 pp. 36 bl/wh and col ills.

Price: £10.95

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