Ziekte en gezondheid in middeleeuws Holland en Zeeland. Een osteoarcheologisch perspectief op het ‘urban graveyard effect’

Abstract

In early modern European cities deaths outnumbered births, a phenomenon commonly referred to as the urban graveyard effect. While most of the research concerning this concept is focused on the modern period, the results are regularly extrapolated to the late medieval towns in Europe. By studying health and disease in human skeletal remains from three different rural and urban collections in Holland and Zeeland, this research will bring to light medieval disease patterns in both town and country. In doing so, this study will be able to combine biological information of individuals with historical contextual information and can thereby contribute to the urban graveyard debate.