Barnen från S:t Jakob: tolkning av socioekonomisk kontext utifrån en osteologisk analys av S:t Jakob i Lund
(2015) HOSK04 20142Historical Osteology
- Abstract
- S:t Jacobs church and burial site from medieval Lund was excavated in 1983. There has until now not been any osteological study and there is nearly no information about the church. To gain more information about the church and the burials, an osteological study has now been made. The analysis is based on aging and sexing the skeletons to enable a socio-economic discussion. 93 out of 320 excavated graves was examined and the material was divided into two time periods, 1100-1200 and 1200-1560. It was possible to determine age from all of the skeletons though it was only possible to determine sex from 31 skeletons, 26 of these were dated to 1100-1200 and 8 was dated to 1200-1560. The division between males and females was relatively equal and... (More)
- S:t Jacobs church and burial site from medieval Lund was excavated in 1983. There has until now not been any osteological study and there is nearly no information about the church. To gain more information about the church and the burials, an osteological study has now been made. The analysis is based on aging and sexing the skeletons to enable a socio-economic discussion. 93 out of 320 excavated graves was examined and the material was divided into two time periods, 1100-1200 and 1200-1560. It was possible to determine age from all of the skeletons though it was only possible to determine sex from 31 skeletons, 26 of these were dated to 1100-1200 and 8 was dated to 1200-1560. The division between males and females was relatively equal and the adult age corresponded to the result of other contemporary graveyards from Lund. The result also showed that about one third of the burials were children. The reason why there were so many children buried at S:t Jacobs churchyard remains uncertain, but a few theories is presented. The paper discusses if the result depends on the fact that Lund was growing quickly or even the placement of the graves, since only the area in front of the choir is excavated. The main theory is a possible orphanage due to the high amount of children, but also because the friary of S:t Jacob have been known for taking care of orphan children in Europe during this time period. A future study of diseases would be especially interesting for testing the possible theories. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/5385837
- author
- Petersen, Maria LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- HOSK04 20142
- year
- 2015
- type
- M2 - Bachelor Degree
- subject
- keywords
- Sexing, aging, Social Status, Medieval, Lund, St. Jakob’s Cemetary.
- language
- Swedish
- id
- 5385837
- date added to LUP
- 2015-06-12 15:11:23
- date last changed
- 2015-06-12 15:11:23
@misc{5385837,
abstract = {{S:t Jacobs church and burial site from medieval Lund was excavated in 1983. There has until now not been any osteological study and there is nearly no information about the church. To gain more information about the church and the burials, an osteological study has now been made. The analysis is based on aging and sexing the skeletons to enable a socio-economic discussion. 93 out of 320 excavated graves was examined and the material was divided into two time periods, 1100-1200 and 1200-1560. It was possible to determine age from all of the skeletons though it was only possible to determine sex from 31 skeletons, 26 of these were dated to 1100-1200 and 8 was dated to 1200-1560. The division between males and females was relatively equal and the adult age corresponded to the result of other contemporary graveyards from Lund. The result also showed that about one third of the burials were children. The reason why there were so many children buried at S:t Jacobs churchyard remains uncertain, but a few theories is presented. The paper discusses if the result depends on the fact that Lund was growing quickly or even the placement of the graves, since only the area in front of the choir is excavated. The main theory is a possible orphanage due to the high amount of children, but also because the friary of S:t Jacob have been known for taking care of orphan children in Europe during this time period. A future study of diseases would be especially interesting for testing the possible theories.}},
author = {{Petersen, Maria}},
language = {{swe}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Barnen från S:t Jakob: tolkning av socioekonomisk kontext utifrån en osteologisk analys av S:t Jakob i Lund}},
year = {{2015}},
}