Urban Health in Medieval Canterbury: An Osteoarchaeological Examination of Health Outcomes

The sacred city of Canterbury was a renowned theological centre during the medieval period (11th to 15th century). It attracted numerous pilgrims with the hopes of gaining miracles from the spirits of saints. Thus, this influenced the people of Canterbury to make a profit off the pilgrims, ultimately influencing the urban centre. The social environment, such as social status, behaviours, and ideologies, impacts urban health. The physical environment, such as dense housing conditions, inadequate food supply, unhygienic disposal of waste, and adverse weather conditions, have negatively impacted urban health in medieval England. Previous biological anthropological studies on medieval Canterbury focused on pathological cases, biorhythms, maturation, enamel microevolution, and behaviour from bone histology. Little is known about the effects of the urban environment on the population’s health; therefore, this research examines urban health in medieval Canterbury. A macroscopic analysis of individuals from St. Gregory's Priory (11th to early 16th century) skeletal collection was conducted for this study. Childhood growth, survivorship and mortality risk patterns were selected to assess non-adults' health. Raunds (Raunds Furnells), Newcastle (Black Gate), and York (All Saint's Church) skeletal collections were also analysed for childhood growth to identify similar and different urban and rural health outcomes. For the health of adults, pathological conditions (periosteal new bone formation and cribra orbitalia as a proxy for parasitic infections), and survivorship and mortality risk patterns were assessed. The findings indicate that non-adults from Canterbury (from birth to 3 years and 4 years and older) had a lower risk of delayed tibial and femoral diaphyseal growth compared to those from Newcastle. Contrarily, there are no significant differences between the risk of delayed femoral and tibial diaphyseal growth of non-adults from Canterbury and Raunds from birth to 3 years and 4 years and older. On the other hand, the risk of delayed femoral and tibial diaphyseal growth of non-adults 4 years and older from Canterbury is lower than those from Raunds. In addition, non-adults from Canterbury (from birth to 3 years and 4 years and older) had a lower risk of delayed femoral diaphyseal growth compared to those from York. Also, there is no significant difference between high- and low-status adults with parasitic infections. Additionally, Low-status non-adults had increased survivorship compared to high-status nonadults. Similarly, low-status adult males had increased survivorship and lower mortality risk compared to high-status adult females. Urban health in medieval Canterbury was significantly influenced by the pilgrimage culture, breastfeeding and weaning practices, dense housing conditions, polluted water resources, inadequate sanitation, and dietary intake.