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IF YOU find yourself in central London, consider this: beneath your feet there may well be human remains. On the edge of Charterhouse Square, engineers digging an access tunnel for the Crossrail railway project have uncovered 12 skeletons.
Historical documents suggest that, in response to the Black Death sweeping Europe in the 14th century, the then-lord mayor of London ordered an emergency burial ground to be prepared at the site.
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鈥淥ur evidence suggests these are burials associated with that period and therefore that these are people buried during the emergency Black Death period,鈥� says archaeologist Jay Carver, who says a team will now look for a DNA 鈥渟ignature鈥� of the plague. Skeletons discovered in a plague pit in nearby Smithfield yielded DNA markers suggesting that the Black Death was caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis.
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淏lack Death burial ground found鈥�