Health and Medicine - Middle Ages

KENT IN THE MIDDLE AGES

The family burial

During the last hundred years of the Roman occupation the town was gradually abandoned.
It is not possible to say how quickly this happened but by the time of the 'family burial' many of the Roman building would have been ruined and no doubt the water and sewage system would have stopped working.
The population of Saxon Canterbury would have lived shorter lives than in Roman times, many young children would have died before their first birthday and there were probably more deaths from infectious diseases because of poor diet.
Between about 400 and 425AD this family was buried together in a tomb inside the town walls of Canterbury. The family included a father, mother and their two children.
The skeleton of the woman was found holding one of her children in her arms. Across the lap of the man was laid a dog, so old and arthritic it must have been a family pet.
They had been buried in a shallow pit that originally had a wooden roof.

What had happened to this family?

Why were they buried together at the same time?

Activities The death of this family is something of a mystery. Explaining what happened to this family is difficult. To find out it is necessary to take on the role of an archaeologist and try to piece together the medical clues. You can use what you have read in the first part of this website and your own knowledge and research to help answer these questions
1.	What was found in the pit?
2.	What questions do you want to ask to find out about the reasons for the death of this family?
3.	When did they live?
4.	What medical help would have been available to them?
5.	What did people know about the causes of illness at the time?
6.	What did they think caused disease? How might the disease have been treated? Could it have been cured or prevented?

What do archaeologists think caused the death of this family?
The family were all buried at the same time. This means that they probably died together or very soon after each other. There is no evidence of violence or broken bones so it is assumed that they died of an infectious disease. If they died together it must have been a disease that acted quickly. Perhaps it was the plague that is known to have been spreading throughout Europe at this time.