Contextualising Edix Hill: First-Pandemic Plague and Britain

Abstract

Abstract: The 2019 discovery of Yersinia pestis ancient DNA at Edix Hill in Cambridgeshire unquestionably confirms that plague was present in sixth-century Britain. Prior treatments of this evidence have decontextualised it from its British setting, considering it aside from the richly studied British archaeological and textual records, to detrimental effect. This article considers this new evidence in context, presenting a historiography of early medieval British epidemics and a summary of current scientific knowledge of the topic to contend that the discovery marks a significant shift in our understanding of early British plague and to clarify what palaeoscientific data can and cannot tell us about plague’s presence in and its impact on Britain. It then argues a new theory of the spread of plague based on recent developments in our understanding of British demographics, ecology and trade routes, contending that early first-pandemic Y. pestis was transmitted to Britain at least two distinct times via separate routes, with the first introduction potentially pre-dating the introduction of plague to Constantinople in 542 CE. The article then reflects on why British sources have been omitted from or misused in plague scholarship, arguing that this trend speaks to British history’s damaging insularity and to methodological issues within plague studies. It concludes by connecting this issue to wider geographical hierarchies within scholarship on Late Antiquity and suggests ways in which future plague scholarship can respond to these challenges.