Fourteenth-Century Plague Pit Unearthed in England

LINCOLNSHIRE, ENGLAND—Estimates suggest that up to half of England’s population died of the Black Death between 1346 and 1353. The Independent reports that a team of archaeologists has unearthed a mass grave at the monastery hospital at Thornton Abbey, in the East of England. The remains of 48 people, including more than 20 children, were found in the grave. DNA testing of tooth pulp obtained from the skeletons has revealed the presence of Yersinia pestis, the bacterium that causes t