with the black death what happened to the bodies of the dead?

Answer 1

Hi,

there were thousands of people died of bubonic plague (the black death) in several 'waves'. Where the victims were citizens of large towns or cities they were often buried in mass graves, sometimes covered in quicklime to aid quick dipersal of the flesh, in others, just piled in and covered with earth. There are several of these mass grave sites in London, which can be visited.

In many smaller towns victims were buried as normal in 'normal' graveyards. Probably one of the most famous of these is in Eyam, Derbyshire, England. Where, realising they were infected, the citizens decided to remain in the town, facing almost certain death, rather than flee and possibly spread the plague further.

This resulted in most of the inhabitants dying of the plague and all were buried in the local graveyard. It is a much visited tourist site and the story of the graves and the history of the plague is well worth a vist, and is very moving.

In large cities, especially near the outskirts victims were often burned. This, too was the case in parts of Europe, where Paris burned sometimes a thousand victims per day, and the fires went on for several months without ever being extinguished.

Thank God for flea collars, eh? Incidentally, the plague at Eyam was started by the vicar of the local church receiving a hamper of second-hand clothing for the parishioners, some of which was infected by fleas. Nice story, huh?

Anyway, off to have a scratch now...

Cheers,

BobSpain

Answer 2

Mostly they were buried - - - though some communities resorted to cremation salvation was obtained through burial in sanctified ground so mass graves became the norm..

Here is a good link----
http://salempress.com/Store/samples/notable_natural_disasters/notable_natural_disasters_black_death.htm

""""Disposal of the dead became a logistical nightmare for both church and civil authorities. Because most European Catholics believed Christian burials in consecrated graves were necessary for salvation, church graveyards quickly filled. As a result, grave diggers, if they could be hired, hastily dug new mass graves, into which corpses were unceremoniously dumped. In many communities, only the abject poor and released criminals were willing to nurse the dying or bury the dead. In Italy, for example, slaves from galley ships were freed and ordered to undertake these tasks. All too soon, however, the new class of grave diggers—called the Becchini—took advantage of their newfound freedom and robbed, raped, murdered, and extorted the living. Civil authorities, exhausted by death and desertion within their own ranks, were often too weak to control the Becchini and their counterparts in other cities and towns.""

And
http://www.themiddleages.net/plague.html

Peace....

Answer 3

At the height of the black death only members of specific religious orders could be found to go into the towns and villages to bury the death. In the UK the bodies were buried in mass graves, the so-called "plague pits".

"Plague pit is the informal term used to refer to the mass graves with the mortal remains from victims of epidemics of medical conditions caused by diseases such as the Black Death. Often hundreds of bodies would be buried in a single location, as the risk of further infection from traditional funerary rites was too great. It is unlikely, in the case of the Black Death, that this practice had any appreciable effect on slowing down the spread of the disease."

"At the start of the plague outbreak, parishes did the best they could to provide proper burials for their parishoners, but soon ran out of space and began to dig mass graves within the city. However, the plague was so devastating that soon, in late 1665, the group graves began to be dug outside the city."

"From:eastlondonhistory.com "The Plague & the Thames" "

"The graveyards were filled, and Aldgate was turned into a giant plague pit. Daniel Defoe, author of Robinson Crusoe, wrote: “They dug the great pit in the churchyard of our parish of Aldgate. A terrible pit it was... about 40ft in length, and about 15 or 16ft broad... about 9ft deep, but it was said they dug it about 20ft afterwards. “For though the plague was long a-coming to our parish yet, when it did come, there was no parish in or about London where it raged with such violence as in the two of Aldgate and Whitechapel.” "

"Plague pit" : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plague_pit

Answer 4

In the early stages of the Black Death victims were buried in the normal manner, in Churchyards etc. but as more & more people died the churchyards couldn't cope so they were buried in Mass Graves, In London, the ground where the dead were buried was designated as "consequated" ground
and you cannot build on such land, Which is why London, today, has such a lot of Parks & Gardens, far more than any other city of comparable size

Answer 5

They have been dealt with as ideal the community government ought to, and interior the absence of same, via their friends as ideal they'd. maximum have been buried. Many have been burned. And in some extremely terrible circumstances, particularly problematical-hit communities, there replaced into no person left to handle each and all the corpses - so as that they rotted the place they died.

Answer 6

Buried in mass graves, from where several hav e been examined, and the results prove the bubonic plague rats and fleas stuff is BALLS.
It was a viral infection.

Answer 7

Most of them were probably burned to see if the disease could be purified by fire or there were mass graves dug in certain areas out of expediency to ward off possible spread of the disease even further.

Answer 8

Some got burned while others were covered in lime and just buried in mass graves.

Answer 9

Buried in mass graves