City Bunhill Burial Ground (GDA06)
12 March 2009
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In use from October 1833 to August 1853, burial registers indicate that in just 20 years, c. 18,000 burials were made in this cemetery. Excavations carried out by Museum of London Archaeology (MOL Archaeology) during 2006 uncovered the remains of 239 individuals.
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Just over half the group were sub-adults (n=122). The adults consisted of 55 males and 58 females, plus four un-sexed individuals. There was considerable evidence for skeletal pathology, including an eight year old child with bilateral spondylolysis in the fifth lumbar vertebra. Sixteen individuals had evidence of vitamin D deficiency: fifteen subadults and one adult with resolved changes. Five of the rachitic subadults had suffered pathological fractures. Two cases of tuberculosis, including a four year old child with tuberculosis showing facial involvement (lupus vulgaris), and an advanced case of venereal syphilis were identified.
Traumatic lesions in adults included, nasal fractures and healed maxillofacial trauma in a young adult female. Evidence of autopsy of both adults and children and of dissection was also seen.
Results will be published as a MOL Archaeology Studies Series volume. Further information on accessing this data will be available here following publication.
For information on MOL Archaeology sites please contact the Head of Osteology.