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One thing is certain: we all have a body. But how have the bodies of Londoners changed through time? This major new exhibition uses modern scientific methods of analysis to unlock the secrets of skeletons excavated over the last twenty years. It also makes full use of the latest technology to recreate
the faces and bodies of our ancestors.
Coupled with the Museum's rich collection, London Bodies gives you the chance to see how you measure up to Londoners of the past.
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 One of the six facial reconstructions made specially for London Bodies is that of a Romano-British man. It reveals the striking facial features of Roman Londoners with a characteristic lantern or 'flaring' jaw-line. Looking at Londoners in the Saxon period, the surprise is that they were similar in height to us today; certainly they were taller than the people of Roman London and the following generations.
Evidence from the medieval hospital and priory of St Mary Spital near Bishopsgate shows the differences in the condition of bones and teeth of the well-fed monks and the emaciated bodies of the sick and dying
paupers in their care.
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The fourteenth century brings the uncertainty of life into sharp focus: London was hit hard by the Black Death in 1349. Threatening a whole generation, this horrifying disease killed a third or more of the city's population, and traces of the earlier famine can be seen in the bones of some of those buried in a Black Death cemetery. | |||
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One of the mysteries highlighted
by London Bodies is the extraordinary bathrocranic skull. In the seventeenth century, one Londoner in ten had it, but today this genetic trait is very
rare. So who were these people and where did they come from? Two more facial reconstructions may help us to draw a clearer picture. | ||
Next, imagine the appearance of the eighteenth-century woman whose skull shows the terrible decay caused by syphilis. The explosive population growth in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries resulted in severe overcrowding and poor sanitation. Diseases such as rickets, smallpox and syphilis left their grisly mark
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Later on, Victorian fashion shaped the bodies of London women, as style dictated impossibly tight-fitting corsets. On display, you will find an example which produced a waist of just eighteen inches, together with a torso model showing the shocking effect on the body's internal organs.
On average we are taller, live longer and are better fed than our ancestors. But questions still remain. Will it be a brave new world where the sex, intelligence and appearance of children can be selected before conception? Will medical science keep pace with the evolution of life-threatening viruses? | |
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