The archaeology of public health at York, England

Abstract

Excavations in the last two decades in York, combined with developments in the techniques of environmental archaeology, have enabled studies to be made of the city's layout, housing provision, food and water supply, effluent disposal and environmental conditions over a span of 2.000 years. Excavation of several thousand burials allows an assessment to be made of these and other environmental effects on longevity, robustness, stature, the incidence of disease, stress and trauma. Relatively good provisions and an evident concern for public health matters in the Roman legionary fortress and nearby colonia do not seem to have resulted in exceptional longevity though general health levels seem to have been fair. Quite different environmental conditions appertained in Anglian York, some better (no rats) and some worse. By the Viking Age conditions in York reached an all‐time low. the city being a largely organic world sited on a heap of rotting organic debris. Conditions, housing, water supply, rubbish and effluent disposal ‐and their implications for the physical state and life expectancy of some 2.000 individuals recently excavated from cemeteries ‐ all improve as the Middle Ages proceed.

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