Archaeologists charged with the examination of over 3,000 skeletons that were dug up in Sint-Truiden (Limburg) several years ago have presented the results of their research. Examination of the bones shows that the people, who were buried here, didn’t always lead an easy life.
Archaeologists of the company Aron BV headed the investigation involving skeletons dug up on the Groenmarkt or ‘vegetable market’ in Sint-Truiden. Soon it emerged that bodies had been buried here from the 7th to the 18th century.
“We divided the skeletons into two groups” says Natasja de Winter. “We focused on the oldest skeletons and chose the 120 that had been best preserved. One group involved skeletons from before the year 1,000; the others had been dated to after the year 1,000”.
“The oldest skeletons displayed a lot of fractures showing people at this time had a lot of fractures. The fractures didn’t kill them though because most had healed. We suspect these are workers deployed to build the abbey”.
Far fewer fractures occur in the second group, people dating from after the year 1,000. “There were far fewer fractures, but the average age of the people when they died was lower. Infant mortality was high. We suspect that living conditions were a lot worse as a result of the expansion of the city. That resulted in more infections and disease” says De Winter.
The skeletons are now being preserved at the archaeological storage depot in Sint-Truiden so that they remain available for further scientific research.