What question did this study set out to answer?

The study aims to compare mortality profiles of medieval populations before and after the Black Death, focusing on demographic changes.

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June 13, 2026Open Access

Before and after the Black Death: understanding catastrophic and attritional mortality

Key Points

The study aims to compare mortality profiles of medieval populations before and after the Black Death, focusing on demographic changes.
Analysis of burial records from three cemeteries
Comparison of age-at-death and survivorship profiles
Examination of demographic shifts associated with the Black Death
Pre-Black Death burial profiles show consistent age-at-death patterns for adults
Distinct over-representation of individuals aged 15–24 years in plague burials
Comparison supports the differentiation between catastrophic and attritional mortality patterns in medieval Britain

Abstract

Despite common associations with plague pits and mass graves, many individuals who succumbed to the Black Death in the mid-fourteenth century AD, and to the numerous subsequent outbreaks of plague, were buried in parish cemeteries. This limits the usefulness of contemporaneous cemetery assemblages for the establishment of comparative, non-catastrophic (or ‘attritional’) demographic profiles for medieval populations in Britain. Drawing from three earlier cemeteries, this study reveals similarities in age-at-death and survivorship profiles for adults, offering a characteristic pre-Black Death profile that helps reinforce the distinctiveness of the over-representation of individuals aged 15–24 years among plague burials.

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