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The impact of urbanisation and industrialisation in Medieval and Post-Medieval Britain. An assessment of the morbidity and mortality of non-adult skeletons from the cemeteries of two urban and two rural sites in England (AD 850-1859).
Lewis, Mary Elizabeth
Lewis, Mary Elizabeth
Publication Date
2010-01-18T16:51:51Z
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The University of Bradford theses are licenced under a Creative Commons Licence.
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University of Bradford
Department
Department of Archaeological Sciences
Awarded
1999
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Abstract
This study compares the morbidity and mortality of non-adults in urban and rural
cemeteries between AD 850-1859 It was hypothesised that the development of
urbanisation and industrialisation with subsequenot overcrowding and environmental
pollution, would result in a decline in human health in the urban groups. This would be evident in lower mean ages at death, retarded growth and higher rates of childhood stress
and chronic infection in the children living in the urbanised environments.
Non-adult skeletons were examined from Raunds Furnells in Northamptonshire (Anglo-
Saxon), St. Helen-on-the-Walls in York (later medieval, urban), Wharrarn Percy in
Yorkshire (later medieval, rural) and from the crypt of Christ Church Spitalfields, in
London (AD 1729-1859). The results showed that it was industrialisation, rather than
urbanisation that was most detrimental to child health. Weaning ages declined from two
years in the Anglo-Saxon period to one year in the eighteenth and nineteenth century.
Industrialisation was characterised by a lower mean age at death, growth retardation and an increase in the prevalence of rickets and scurvy. Although higher rates of dental
disease and matemal stress were apparent in the urbanised samples, respiratory diseases
were more common in the rural areas. Growth profiles suggested that environmental
factors were similar in the urban and rural communities in the later medieval period.
However, there was evidence that employment had a detrimental effect on the health of
later medieval apprentices.
This study demonstrates the importance of non-adult remains in addressing issues of
health and adaptation in the past and, the validity of using skeletal material to measure environmental stress.
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Thesis
Qualification name
PhD