A Biocultural Approach to Understanding the Presence of Children from Medieval Hospitals in England: What Can We Learn from Archaeological Investigations?

ABSTRACT

The revival of monasticism in the eleventh century promoted greater seclusion of monks and the re-positioning of care offered to the community. The increasing prevelance of leprosy also prompted the development of hospitals as independent foundations. These factors contributed to the establishment of over 1000 hospitals in England during the medieval period (AD 1050–1550). Documentary evidence relating to the inhabitants of these sites, particularly non-adults, is scarce. Over the past twenty years, archaeological excavations and bioarchaeological studies of medieval hospital cemeteries across England, have produced an increasing body of evidence which is revealing new information about hospital inhabitants. This paper will provide an overview of current approaches to the study of non-adults buried at medieval hospitals from historical, archaeological and bioarchaeological perspectives. Consideration is given to the theoretical and scientific advances in these areas, and the potential of osteological methods to enhance our knowledge of non-adults in hospital populations.

KEYWORDS:

• Childhood
• medieval hospital
• archaeology
• bioarchaeology
• literature

Acknowledgements

The authors would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their useful suggestions and comments in the preparation of this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributors

Esme Hookway is a PhD research student at Staffordshire University (UK). Her research primarily focuses upon juvenile human remains from medieval hospital sites in England.

Dr Kirsty Squires is a Senior Lecturer in Forensic Anthropology at Staffordshire University (UK). She is interested in the archaeology of childhood in the past and the analysis and interpretation of cremated bone from archaeological and forensic contexts.