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Did smallpox kill Gloucester Romans?
Submitted by Milica on Wed, 2008/05/14 - 16:11.
601 CE and Earlier | Archaeology | BBC News | English | Medicine | Roman
Experts working on the recently-discovered mass Roman grave in Gloucester, England will be using DNA tests to determine what killed over 90 individuals. A first look at the remains points to a 2nd century smallpox outbreak that swept across Britain.
A preliminary study of the 91 bodies, which were discovered "thrown in the grave haphazardly during the second half of the 2nd Century," indicates that the cemetery may have been the burial ground for Kingsholm fortress, and that the dead were victims of some sort of plague. |
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