Projects per year
Abstract
ust like today, the late medieval period knew many challenges caused by climate change and diseases. The Little Ice Age, starting in the fourteenth century, and the famines and diseases that followed left their marks on past
European populations, which are still visible today in the human skeletal remains. The influences of these potential
stressors on human skeletons from the late medieval population from Ypres, Belgium, is assessed via stable isotope
and osteological analyses. Ypres, rapidly growing into one of the biggest cities in Europe during the thirteenth century, was struck by social polarisation, conflicts, proletarianization, and famines. As a result, the booming city once
known for its cloth industry, started to decline during the fourteenth century and provides a good opportunity to
study the dynamics of densely populated urban centers during such tumultuous times. Preliminary results from the
stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes (δ13C & δ15N) analyses seem to indicate some levels of physiological of stress
with higher δ13C & δ15N values observed in some of the individual’s ribs compared to the femurs, suggesting they
may have suffered from malnutrition or even starvation. The stable isotope results occasionally match pathological
changes. One individual in particular displayed enamel hypoplasia, cribra orbitalia, and vitamin D deficiency and
had high δ15N values in the ribs (14.1‰), reinforcing the possibility that inhabitants of Ypres suffered from starvation.
This presentation provides more insights into how bioarchaeology can help research the health status in Ypres during
its rise and decline in the late medieval period.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | EAA 2022: [Re]Integration |
Place of Publication | Prague |
Publisher | European Association of Archaeologists |
Pages | 393 |
Number of pages | 1 |
Volume | 1 |
ISBN (Print) | 978-80-88441-02-1 |
Publication status | Published - Jul 2022 |
Event | European Association of Archaeologists Annual Conference: [Re]Integration - ELTE Faculty of Humanities Campus (Trefort-kert) , Budapest, Hungary Duration: 31 Aug 2022 → 3 Sep 2022 Conference number: 28 https://www.e-a-a.org/eaa2022 |
Conference
Conference | European Association of Archaeologists Annual Conference |
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Abbreviated title | EAA |
Country | Hungary |
City | Budapest |
Period | 31/08/22 → 3/09/22 |
Internet address |
Keywords
- medieval
- stable isotopes
- health
- diet
- osteology
- starvation
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IRP18: The Make-Up of the City: A Transdisciplinary Study of Urban Society in the Pre-Modern Low Countries
Lambert, B., Tys, D., Claeys, P., Provyn, S. & Snoeck, C.
1/11/19 → 31/10/24
Project: Fundamental
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SRP2: Strategic Research Programme: Tracing and Modelling of Past & Present Global Changes
Claeys, P., Elskens, M., Huybrechts, P., Gao, Y., Kervyn De Meerendre, M., Claeys, P., Baeyens, W. & Dehairs, F.
1/11/12 → 31/10/24
Project: Fundamental
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HERC46: FWO Hercules MZW: A walk on the wild side of stable isotope biogeochemistry
Claeys, P., Elskens, M., Olde Venterink, H., Nys, K., Tys, D., Kervyn De Meerendre, M., Huybrechts, P., Van Griensven, A., Huysmans, M., Thiery, W. & Snoeck, C.
1/05/18 → 30/04/22
Project: Fundamental