A new paper published in the
American Journal of Physical Anthropology presents the results of a study of the bones of “314 individuals dating from the 10
th to the 14
th century,” excavated from three burial sites in Cambridge. The skeletal samples were taken from a parish graveyard where working people were buried, a hospital graveyard where the infirm and destitute were buried, and from an Augustinian friary where wealthy sponsors were interred beside rich clergymen. The researchers studied the levels of skeletal trauma in the skeletons, which they say indicated the hardship endured in life.” Their paper concludes that “ social inequality is recorded on the bones of Cambridge’s medieval residents”.