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Wealthy medieval Christians bought tombs 'closer to God' despite leprosy stigma, archaeologists find

Medieval Christians in Denmark displayed their wealth after death by purchasing prestigious tombs.The closer to the churchThe price will be even higher.Researchers use these cemeteries to investigate social deprivation based on disease.By studying how people with leprosyWhich is a highly stigmatized disease associated with sin, or has tuberculosis been excluded from high-status areas?

Unexpectedly, they discovered that people with stigmatized diseases were buried like their peers.

"When we started this work, I was immediately reminded of the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail, especially the plague cart scene," said Dr. Saez Kermelis of the University of South Dakota, lead author of the Frontiers in Environmental Archeology article.

"I think this image captures our idea of ​​how people in the past, and in some cases today, reacted to debilitating illness. However, our research shows that medieval communities were very different in their responses and composition. For some communities, those who were ill were buried alongside their neighbors and treated just like anyone else."

beyond the mark

Lead researchers Kelmelis and Vicki Kristensen et al. Dorthe Pedersen, from the University of Southern Denmark, examined 939 adult skeletons from five medieval Danish cemeteries: three urban and two rural, to capture possible differences between cities and towns.

Population growth facilitated the transmission of both leprosy and tuberculosis, and the unsanitary practices of ancient cities increased the risk of both diseases.

However, the impact of the two diseases on the patients' lives was different.Lesions on the face of leprosy patients would be flagged as less specific symptoms of tuberculosis.

"Tuberculosis is one of those chronic infections that people can live with for a very long time without symptoms," Kelmelis said.

"In addition, tuberculosis is not as harmful as leprosy, and while the cause of the disease and the means of transmission are unknown, it is likely that tuberculosis patients do not receive the same stigma as overt leprosy. Perhaps the ancients were so busy treating one disease that the other was just the cherry on top of the disease sundae."

Scientists examine the disease status of each bone and the lifespan of each person.Leprosy shows evidence of secondary infection, including inflamed eyes and damage to the hands and feet, while tuberculosis affects the lungs and the bones near the lungs.

The scientists then mapped the cemeteries, looking for boundaries that indicate differences in status, such as burials inside religious buildings. They plotted each skeleton on these maps and looked for differences between high- and low-status areas.

Kelmelis said: "There are documents of people who were able to pay a price for a privileged place to be buried. "In life, these people - benefactors, warriors and even priests - may have been able to use their wealth to ensure a close relationship with God, such as a place to live near a church.

Bring out your dead

The scientists found no overall correlation between disease and burial status.Only in the urban cemetery of Ribe were there any differences correlated with health: almost a third of those buried in low-status cemeteries had tuberculosis, compared to 12% of those buried in a monastery or church.

Because people with leprosy or tuberculosis were not excluded from high-class places;The researchers think this reflects levels of exposure to TB, not stigma.

However, all cemeteries had many TB patients - especially the city cemetery Drotten, where almost half of the burials were in status areas and 51% had TB.People who could afford prestigious graves could also pay for better living conditions, which helped them survive tuberculosis long enough for the disease to mark their bones.

These results suggest that medieval people were less likely to expel those who were clearly ill.However, the researchers warn that more digging is needed to get a more complete picture of some cemeteries, and their strict diagnostic criteria may not identify all patients.

"People can carry the bacteria but die before they show up on the skeleton," warns Kelmelis."Unless we can incorporate genomic methods, we may not fully know how this disease affected societies in the past."

Closer to Divinity: A Contextual Study of the Osteoarchaeological and Spatial Patterns of Related Individuals in Medieval Danish Cemeteries, Frontiers in Environmental Archeology (2026). DOI: 10.3389/fearc.2025.1699370

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