Skeletons to make way for London rail project
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ARCHAEOLOGISTS in London, England, have begun digging up about 3,000 historic skeletons including those of plague victims from a burial ground that will become a new train station, the company in charge said.
A team of 60 researchers will work in shifts six days a week over the next month at the Bedlam burial ground to remove the centuries-old skeletons, which will eventually be reburied at a cemetery east of London.
Crossrail, which is building a new east-west train line in the English capital, said the dig near Liverpool Street station was being carried out on its behalf by the Museum of London’s archaeology unit.
The bones will be tested to “shed light on migration patterns, diet, lifestyle and demography” of Londoners at the time, it said.
“Archaeologists hope that tests on excavated plague victims will help understand the evolution of the plague bacteria strain,” Crossrail said.
The Bedlam ground was used between 1569 and 1738 — a period that spanned Shakespeare’s plays, the Great Fire of London and numerous plague outbreaks.
The excavation is also expected to further uncover the remains of an ancient Roman road, where Crossrail said that several artefacts such as horseshoes and cremation urns have already been found.
The area was London’s first municipal burial ground and was named after the nearby Bethlem Royal Hospital or “Bedlam” — the world’s oldest psychiatric institution, which became a byword for all mental institutions and has since relocated outside London.
The burial ground was used by Londoners who could not afford a church burial or who chose to be buried there for religious or political reasons.
Members of the Levellers, a 17th-century political grouping that advocated popular sovereignty are believed to be buried there.
“This excavation presents a unique opportunity to understand the lives and deaths of 16th and 17th century Londoners,” said Jay Carver, Crossrail’s lead archaeologist.
“The Bedlam burial ground spans a fascinating phase of London’s history, including the transition from the Tudor-period city into cosmopolitan early-modern London.”
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