When Newspapers Were New, or, How Londoners Got Word of the Plague

Daniel Defoe's novel about London's 1665 plague can help us understand new media. No, really.

 The plague was abroad. Londoners knew not where it had come from, only that it was upon Holland. "It was brought, some said from Italy, others from the Levant, among some goods which were brought home by their Turkey fleet; others said it was brought from Candia; others from Cyprus," Daniel Defoe wrote in the opening of his historical novel, A Journal of the Plague Year.

 The book, which many read as something like non-fiction, bore the webby subtitle, being observations or memorials of the most remarkable occurrences, as well public as private, which happened in London during the last great visitation in 1665, and bore stamps of authenticity -- it was "Written by a citizen who remained all the while in London" -- and intrigue, having "Never [been] made public before."

 Which, as a journalist of the web era, made me think: that Defoe knew how to gin up some pageviews! And in fact, Defoe did. (If you can't see the translation to the headline argot du jour, allow me: 73 Amazing and Horrible Things That Happened During the Plague, From Someone Who Saw Them With His Own Two Eyes. And no, I didn't count. But the point is: no one's counting.)

Click here to read this article from The Atlantic

Graveyard dating back to the Middle Ages found in Southwark, England

More than 500 skeletons, some dating back to the Middle Ages, have been discovered by archaeologists in Southwark, which lies on the Thames River across from London. The work has delayed the demolition of the current leisure centre at the Elephant and Castle ahead of a new £20m state-of-the-art facility.

The local council anticipated that archaeology and pre-demolition works would begin and be completed by July this year, but following some archaeological discoveries during this phase, it will now be later in the year before demolition is expected to begin. Before the current leisure centre was built, the ground it was built on was originally home to a church and graveyard.

The council expected that part of its archaeological work would unearth remains from the burial site, which dates back to medieval times. However, after initial excavations, it was discovered that the extent of the findings is greater than what was anticipated.

Councillor Peter John, Leader of Southwark Council, said:" The remains will be treated respectfully and we will be following the Ministry of Justice's guidance to peacefully re-bury or relocate them. The leisure centre work will resume as soon as we've sensitively dealt with this issue."

Click here to read more from Southwark Council

Cataclysmic volcano wreaked havoc on medieval Britain

The results of the largest archaeological investigation ever to have taken place in London are to be published by the Museum of London Archaeology. Some 10,500 human skeletons dating from the 12th century to the 1500s were discovered by archaeologists a decade ago. It has taken ten years to analyse the results of this colossal discovery. Amongst the orderly burials were a number of mass burial pits that had scientists baffled.

Through radiocarbon dating, the mass burials were accurately dated but the timings didn’t marry with devastating events know to have taken place in the medieval period, like the Black Death or the Great Famine. Osteologist Don Walker set about solving the mystery. He turned to contemporary documentary sources, in which he found mention of ‘heavy rains’, ‘there was a failure of the crops; upon which failure, a famine ensued... many thousand persons perished’.

Whilst examining a possible cause for these climatic changes, Don uncovered references to a cataclysmic volcano that erupted at this time. It is believed to have erupted somewhere in the tropics, perhaps El Chichón in Mexico or Quilotoa in Ecuador. Its force was such that ice-core data is evident in both hemispheres. The effects of this massive eruption were felt across the globe, as a ‘dry fog’ descended across the world, cooling the Earth’s surface.

Don Walker, MOLA Osteologist, said: “This is the first archaeological evidence for the 1258 volcano and is an excellent example of the complexity of knowledge that can be gained from archaeological evidence. It is amazing to think that such a massive global natural disaster has been identified in a small area of East London. MOLA work on such a wide range of projects but I am always surprised when incredible discoveries like this one come to light.”

Bill McGuire, Professor of Geophysical and Climate Hazards at University College London, added, “This was certainly a prodigious volcanic event; one of the largest in the last few thousand years. Consequently, it is not really a surprise that one legacy should be a serious increase in mortality in London. Through their influence on climate, major volcanic blasts can affect any locality on the planet, and an eruption in distant Indonesia - which is one of a number of host candidates for the 1257/8 eruption - could without doubt reach out to take lives in the UK's capital.”

The osteological findings are revealed in the MOLA monograph A bioarchaeological study of medieval burials on the site of St Mary Spital: excavations at Spitalfields Market, London E1, 1991–2007.

See also our article: Volcano Blast led to thousands of deaths in London in1258

15th century Italian banking records discovered in London manuscript

A rare accounting document, half-concealed beneath a coat of arms design, has revealed the activities of Italian bankers working in early 15th century London, decades before the capital became a financial powerhouse. The discovery was made by economic historians at Queen Mary, University of London.

Among the pages of a bound collection of traditional English crests held at the London College of Arms – the headquarters of British heraldry – are several papers belonging to a book of debtors and creditors for Florentine merchant-banking company, Domenicio Villani & Partners.

The coats of arms are estimated to have been painted in 1480, during a time when good quality paper was scarce and anything that was available was re-used.

The banking records, only half-covered by the design, date from 1422-24 and hint at the extensive trade in wool and other commodities produced in Britain during the era.

Click here to read this article from Medievalists.net

London built with the blood of British slaves

The Romans founded London as a centre of trade and business in about AD 50 - or so archaeologists have long believed.

But new evidence suggests the capital has a more chilling history, built as a military base by slaves who were then slaughtered. Hundreds of skulls discovered along the course of the "lost" river Walbrook suggest London may have been built by forced labour.

Dominic Perring, director of the Centre for Applied Archaeology at University College London, says the skulls could be those of Queen Boudica's rebel Iceni tribesmen who were brought to London to build a new military base.

In an essay published in this month's British Archaeology magazine, Mr Perring argues that some of the skulls had been de-fleshed, which suggests the slaves may have been executed after building work was finished.

Click here to read this article from the Evening Standard