Urbanisation and Child Health in Medieval and Post-Medieval England: An assessment of the morbidity and mortality of non-adult skeletons from the ceme

ISBN-13: 9781841714462 / Angielski / Miękka / 2002 / 86 str.

Lewis, Mary

Opis

Focusing on infant skeletal remains from two urban and two rural cemeteries, this study aims to examine the potential impact of urbanisation and, later, industrialisation on past human health in England' between 850 and 1859. Chapters discuss the archaeological and environmental evidence for living conditions in town and country, changing attitudes towards pollution, diet and hygiene, skeletal evidence for disease and comparisons of the growth and mortality of children living in urban and rural conditions. The four sites discussed are Raunds Furnells in Northamptonshire, St Helen-on-the-Walls in York, Wharram Percy in North Yorkshire and Christ Church Spitalfields in London.

This book developed out of the need to address the issues surrounding the potential impact of urbanization and later, industrialization, on past human health in England. The main aims of the research were to assess differences in the levels of morbidity and mortality in non-adults from urban and rural environments, and to explore the types of evidence for morbidity observed on non-adult skeletons. The study was based on two urban (York and London) and two rural (Northamptonshire and North Yorkshire) sites in England (between 850 and 1859). The use of skeletal and dental indicators of stress were examined as measures of environmental change, and also what factors in the urban and rural environments may be contributing to any difference between the samples.