Medieval Ypres skeletons point to local roots and mobile women
VUB researchers analyzed more than 1,000 excavated skeletons for a Yper Museum exhibition on migration, labor and status in medieval Ypres.
By Tom Brennan · Health & Medicine Correspondent
3 min read
Medieval Ypres skeletons are giving researchers a new way to study a city whose written records were largely destroyed in World War I. Vrije Universiteit Brussel researchers say tests on more than 1,000 excavated remains show how people in the medieval city moved, worked and marked social rank.
The work is part of the summer exhibition wONDERLAND at the Yper Museum, according to the Free University of Brussels. The museum is housed in the cloth halls, where Ypres’ city archive burned during the war, leaving historians with major gaps in the record.
Recent urban redevelopment projects changed the evidence base. Several thousand skeletons were recovered from three sites: the parish churchyards of St. Nicholas and St. Martin, and the Hooge Siecken leper colony, the university said.
What did medieval Ypres skeletons reveal?
VUB researchers say chemical analysis of bone material showed that most people buried in Ypres came from the local area or the wider region. That finding complicates assumptions about the 13th-century city, which had about 30,000 residents and was known for its cloth trade.
Rachèl Spros, Charlotte Van Riet and Lucy Koster, working under Christophe Snoeck, used isotope analysis to study mobility, according to VUB. In this context, isotope analysis is chemical testing that helps researchers infer where a person lived during parts of life from signatures preserved in bone or teeth.
The team found that long-distance newcomers were uncommon among the burials studied. Regional movement did appear, but VUB said it was driven by women at least as much as by men, challenging the familiar image of medieval women as largely settled in one place.
A rider in an elite grave
The exhibition also features an 11th-century male skeleton buried in an iron sandstone tomb, VUB said. The burial predates the first recorded mention of the name Ypres and points to a person of high standing.
Osteologists led by Barbara Veselka studied the remains with the Department of Anatomy and Traumatology at UZ Brussels. Researcher Martijn Jacobs said the man showed “horse-rider syndrome,” a bony growth on the hip linked in the study to frequent riding.
VUB said isotope results indicate the man grew up locally. The university’s interpretation is that he may represent an early local elite in Ypres rather than an outsider who arrived with status already established.
Teeth record cloth work
The remains also preserve traces of ordinary labor. VUB said many skeletons from the 13th century onward had deep grooves in their teeth, linked to repeated cleaning or tightening of thread used in spinning and weaving.
That evidence ties human remains directly to the city’s textile economy. It also shows how occupational habits could leave marks on the body, even when the names and records of workers have disappeared.
The final section of wONDERLAND focuses on the research methods themselves, according to VUB. Visitors are shown how isotope analysis, skeletal study and tools including CT scanners can be used together to draw evidence from excavated bone material.
This story draws on original reporting from Phys.org.