'Black Death pit' unearthed by Crossrail project:
Thirteen bodies have been found so far in the 5.5m-wide shaft at the edge of Charterhouse Square, alongside pottery dated to the mid-14th Century.
Analysis will shed light on the plague and the Londoners of the day.
DNA taken from the skeletons may also help chart the development and spread of the bacterium that caused the plague that became known as the Black Death.
And the project sites are finding more than that:
Teams have already discovered skeletons near Liverpool Street, a Bronze-Age transport route, and an array of other finds, including the largest piece of amber ever found in the UK.
"We've found archaeology from pretty much all periods - from the very ancient prehistoric right up to a 20th-Century industrial site, but this site is probably the most important medieval site we've got," said Jay Carver, project archaeologist for Crossrail.
As I may possibly have heretofore remarked, layers upon layers.
***
In other news, today is
World Sleep Day - which I, personally, celebrated by sleeping in, partly because I have the day off anyway (use it or lose it carry-over leave) and partly because I am not feeling quite the thing. If I hadn't had the day off I'd probably have staggered into work, but as it was, I've pottered at home and got only a minimal amount done on a forthcoming conference keynote talk. This is, however, pretty much at that 'walking up and down the room, wringing hands and wailing inarticulately' stage anyway.
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