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Medieval mass grave unearthed in Germany may contain remains of Black Death victims
- Researchers locate a subsurface structure near Neuses outside Erfurt that may be a 14th-century plague burial pit.
- An interdisciplinary approach combining history, geology, and soil science aimed to identify plague pits described in 14th‑century records.
- The discovery could illuminate the origin and spread of Yersinia pestis, the bacterium behind plague pandemics.
- The team stresses that definitive confirmation will require planned archaeological excavation.
- The mass burial site is believed to date from the Black Death era, a pandemic that killed a substantial portion of Europe’s population.
- Researchers located a burial structure near a 14th‑century village in the Gera valley, aligned with soil conditions favorable for burials.
- Soil and landscape analysis helped interpret burial locations as part of a chronicle-based archive.
- The study was published in the journal PLOS One and forms part of ongoing work to map plague burial sites in Europe.
- The site highlights the importance of reading landscapes as archives to illuminate medieval epidemics.
- Experts say further fieldwork could reveal more about how societies coped with mass mortality in the 14th century.
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