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Medieval pandemics spawned fears of the undead, burials reveal
An analysis of graves shows a spike in people buried face-down as plagues ravaged German-speaking Europe. What were the living trying to achieve?
In 2014, Swiss anthropologist Amelie Alterauge was just a few days into her new job at Bern University’s Institute of Forensic Medicine in Switzerland when she was called to investigate an odd burial in a centuries-old cemetery that was being excavated ahead of a construction project. Of some 340 burials in the cemetery, one stood out: a middle-aged man, interred face-down in a neglected corner of the churchyard. “I had never seen such a burial in real life before,” says Alterauge.
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