Beyond the Gate: A Multidisciplinary Approach for Reconstructing the Lived Experience of Medieval Leprosy Sufferers

Were leprosy sufferers truly shunned to the edge of society or were leprosaria a site of charitable, humane care? At present, our knowledge surrounding the experience of having the disease in the medieval period is heavily reliant on historical sources, which are quite generalised and overly negative. In some countries, historical records have shown leprosaria to uphold selection criteria based on status and sex, with voluntary admission. Since detailed records about leprosaria patients are limited for medieval England, other effective means to assess variation in life experience during this period are needed. This study will take a multidisciplinary approach to analyse the differences in biological markers between individuals from various leprosaria and parish cemeteries from Anglo-Saxon to medieval times. Osteoarchaeological analyses can provide estimations of age-at-death, sex, stature and pathology, whereas isotopic data can hint towards varying dietary and status patterns. Additionally, aDNA can confirm leprosy infection independent of skeletal expression. The obtained data will allow for a population-level approach, as well as reconstruction of individual life histories through their osteobiography. This combination of evidence can be used to provide insight into the social treatment and life experiences of those infected, and can scrutinize our modern beliefs concerning social stigmatization of lepers in medieval times.