Being rich in the Middle Ages led to an unhealthy life
"Lead poisoning can be the consequence when ingesting lead, which is a heavy metal. In the Middle Ages you could almost not avoid ingesting lead, if you were wealthy or living in an urban environment. But what is perhaps more severe, is the fact that exposure to lead leads to lower intelligence of children", says Associate Professor Kaare Lund Rasmussen, Department of Physics and Chemistry, University of Southern Denmark (SDU).
Together with colleagues Rasmussen has published a series of chemical and anthropological analyzes of 207 skeletons from six cemeteries in northern Germany and Denmark. The paper is published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. The work was performed in collaboration with other SDU scientists: Professor Jesper Lie Boldsen from the Institute of Forensic Medicine and postdoc Lilian Skytte and Ph.D. student Anne Juul Jensen from the research group CHART at Department of Physics, Chemistry and Pharmacy.
"There really is a big difference in how much lead, the individuals from the cemeteries had in their bodies. This depended on whether they lived in the country or in a town. We see almost no lead in the bones from rural individuals, while the levels of this toxic metal were high in urban individuals", says Rasmussen.
In the Middle Ages wealthy Danes and Germans mainly lived in towns, while the rural population was generally poorer and more isolated. The wealthy could afford to eat and drink of glazed pottery, and this was the main source of lead poisoning.
"In those days lead oxide was used to glaze pottery. It was practical to clean the plates and looked beautiful, so it was understandably in high demand. But when they kept salty and acidic foods in glazed pots, the surface of the glaze would dissolve and the lead would leak into the food", says Rasmussen.
In the country, glazed pottery was seemingly used more rarely. And even if you had the money, it would have been more difficult to get by. Instead, the country people used unglazed pottery and thus unknowingly saved themselves from exposure to the toxic lead.
In the Middle Ages only wealthy town people could afford to eat and drink from beautiful, colored glazed cups and plates. But the glazing was made of lead, which found its way into the body if you ate acidic foods. This has been revealed by chemical investigations of skeletons from cemeteries in Denmark and Germany.
Medieval News
McKee family outside JORVIK with Viking re-enactor, Arnor (Max O’Keeffe) – Photo courtesy York Archaeological Trust