Children of the Golden Minster: St. Oswald’s Priory and the Impact of Industrialisation on Child Health

Mary E Lewis

doi:10.1155/2013/959472

Abstract

This study explores the disease experience of children buried within the cemetery of St. Oswald’s Priory, Gloucester from AD1153 to 1857. Evidence for ages-at-death, infant mortality, and the prevalence of stress indicators, trauma, and pathology were compared between the early and postmedieval periods. The skeletal remains of these children provide evidence for child health spanning the economic expansion of Gloucester at St. Oswald’s, from a mostly rural parish to a graveyard catering for families from the poorer northern part of the town and the workhouse. Results showed that the children from the postmedieval period in Gloucester suffered higher rates of dental caries (38%) and congenital conditions (17.3%) than their counterparts from the early and later medieval period. This paper serves to highlight the value of nonadult skeletal material in the interpretation of past human health in transitional societies and illustrates the wide variety of pathological conditions that can be observed in nonadult skeletons.

Highlights

The importance of studying nonadult skeletal remains from the archaeological context is gaining increasing recognition [1,2,3], but studies that focus solely on the diseases experience of children from past populations is still uncommon
Results of the skeletal analysis were originally presented by Rogers [5], but the palaeopathology of the children received little attention
A secondary aim was to highlight the variety of pathological lesions that can be identified on nonadult skeletal material

Summary

Introduction

The importance of studying nonadult skeletal remains from the archaeological context is gaining increasing recognition [1,2,3], but studies that focus solely on the diseases experience of children from past populations is still uncommon. Between the 1100 and 1500s the majority of the people buried at St. Oswald’s were living a rural lifestyle of subsistence agriculture, with children being employed in tending animals, lambing, and spinning wool [7, 8]. Oswald’s were living a rural lifestyle of subsistence agriculture, with children being employed in tending animals, lambing, and spinning wool [7, 8] Tenant farmers rented their properties from a Lord and were allocated strips of land which they harvested. Gloucester itself was a middle-ranking market town that benefited from its position as an inland port situated along the River Severn [10, 11] It received both raw and surplus goods for redistribution, and luxury items that were sold to the wealthy. Oswald’s extramural population would have had close links with Gloucester through the town’s market which they would have visited regularly in order to sell livestock, grain, and raw materials for craftsmen [8, 12]

Methods

Results

Conclusion