Overview
- The peer-reviewed study in Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology analyzed adult remains from three urban and two rural medieval sites in Denmark.
- Across sites, skeletal signs of leprosy or tuberculosis did not predict placement near churches or inside them, locations typically purchased by wealthier individuals.
- At Ribe, about one-third of those in lower-status ground had tuberculosis versus roughly 12% in monastery or church plots, which the authors attribute to differing exposure and survival rather than deliberate exclusion.
- In the urban cemetery of Drotten, tuberculosis was widespread even in prestigious plots, with 51% of burials showing lesions consistent with the disease.
- The authors caution that strict osteological criteria and partial cemetery samples likely undercount infections and call for additional excavations and ancient DNA analyses.