The Archaeology of Britain: An introduction from ... - waughfamily.ca

• 222 • John Schofield
environmental relations between the town and its hinterland, and the lifestyle of the townsfolk as
shown by their skeletons, and we can attempt to determine whether the quality of life in towns
was different—either better or worse—than that in the contemporary countryside.
A number of studies of animal bones from urban sites show that cattle, sheep and pigs were
the main sources of meat. Cattle would often be slaughtered when their usefulness as dairy
animals was over; similarly sheep were usually kept for their wool, and a large proportion of
sheep bones in towns indicates an emphasis on sheep farming in the surrounding area. Pigs
roamed the yards and streets of many towns, and were tolerated as scavengers. Seeds of many
plants also survive in dump deposits or in cesspits.
How good was the standard of living in medieval towns? Townspeople generally probably had
a better diet than their neighbours in the countryside. If they had money, they could buy several
kinds of bread, ale, wine, meat and fish. Fruit and vegetables came from town and suburban
gardens. Over the period, there is some evidence that town dwellers ate more meat and less
cereals or fish than their rural counterparts (Dyer 1989, 201–202).
Human skeletons from churchyards tell us about health and disease, but at present there are
more questions than answers. Of vitamin deficiency diseases, only scurvy and rickets are detectable
in skeletons. Scurvy (lack of vitamin C) is indicative of a restricted diet, and was epidemic in
medieval Europe in winter months when fresh fruit and vegetables were unavailable. Rickets
(lack of vitamin D) is a disease of children, enlarging the epiphyses (the ends) of growing bones;
common among medieval skeletons, it was endemic in places that had little sunlight, and perhaps
therefore it might be more prevalent in crowded parts of towns. The most common complaints
suffered by excavated skeletons from medieval towns were osteoarthritis and problems with their
teeth.
Infectious diseases that might have been particularly rife in towns include leprosy, tuberculosis
and syphilis. The first two in particular were common in the medieval period, though it has also
been suggested that the spread of pulmonary tuberculosis led to the decline of leprosy in the
post-medieval period, since the tubercle bacillus seems to have given some immunity from the
bacterium that causes leprosy. So far few sites in Britain have produced examples of leprous
bones, though the disease was common enough for there to be about 200 leper hospitals in
thirteenth-century England (Steane 1985, 96–7). Five cases of tuberculosis and some possible
cases of syphilis were noted at St Helen’s in York. Other diseases known to have been virulent in
medieval Europe included amoebic dysentery and smallpox.
CURRENT PERCEPTIONS AND OUTSTANDING PROBLEMS
Urban archaeology is good at establishing long sequences of layers that are often accurately
dated by coins or dendrochronology, when timbers survive either in buried waterfront constructions
or in standing buildings. We can quickly establish what was there, how it was built, what was left
in each room or building, what date it was, and what each object was made of. Beyond this, the
wealth of information gathered from the last 30 years of work in towns points to exciting new
possibilities that are only now being explored.
The medieval town is a place where we can study social organization, understand the role of
women and children, and find out more about political centres and the boundaries of their
influence. Buildings represent both these functions: the castle is a centre for warfare, feasting and
political control; but it also reflects social divisions—it symbolizes the political and social elite in
its height, manner of construction and location of the walls that both defended and constrained
the town. From the sheer numbers of artefacts we can begin to study consumer demand for
products, popular culture and fashion, for instance in dress (Egan and Pritchard 1991). Here