Digging Thornton Abbey Plague Pit

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Published Dec 12, 2016

When our Archaeology students discovered a medieval plague pit buried under the grounds at Thornton Abbey it was a huge surprise - but we weren’t unprepared...

Hugh Wilmott from The University of Sheffield Department of Archaeology takes us around the dig to explain how we understand and record such an incredible find, Diane Swales highlights the ancient DNA analysis lab work into Black Death that can tell us about those who fell to the disease and PhD student Pete Townend shows the 3D and GPS tech that’s helping us locate and map finds.

Read more about our work at Thornton Abbey plague pit on The University of Sheffield website here - https://www.shef.ac.uk/archaeology/news/black-death-grave-thornton-abbey-1.664963

As featured on the BBC4 series Digging for Britain - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b014hl0d