Skeletons: London's buried bones opens at Wellcome Collection
23 July 2008
'Skeletons: London's buried bones' features 26 skeletons from the Museum of London's Centre for Human Bioarchaeology. The skeletons reflect the variety that can be found in a collection of 17 000 that has been archived and examined at the Centre over the last 30 years. Each has its own tale to tell, and collectively they uncover 2000 years of history, increasing our understanding of how Londoners once lived and providing insights into the health, diet, diseases suffered and lifestyles of the deceased.
The skeletons have been selected from different burial sites across the city, having been discovered during major excavations in the last few decades.
The skeletons include: a 22-week-old fetus whose remains were found with its mother, which is the youngest ever individual discovered on a British archaeological site; Chelsea's resident butcher and beadle, William Wood, who had a condition linked to having a diet high in rich foods and died at the ripe age of 84 in 1842; a young female discovered at the Royal Mint, whose bones were stained green from copper residues; and a young woman (possibly a prostitute) found in Cross Bones burial ground in South-east London with traces of syphilis in her bones.
Visit the ’Skeletons’ area on the Wellcome Collection website to view image galleries, an interactive map of the burial sites and interviews with the experts.
'Skeletons: London's buried bones' will run from 23 July-28 September 2008.
