Overview
- University of Leipzig researchers report a burial feature at Neuses outside Erfurt that aligns with medieval chronicles describing plague pits.
- Geophysical mapping and sediment coring uncovered strongly mixed, organic-rich sediments containing human bone fragments.
- Radiocarbon dating places the remains in the 14th century, consistent with the 1350 plague wave recorded for the region.
- The team calls it Europe’s first plague mass grave identified through a targeted, systematic search, located on drier black-earth soils at the Gera valley edge.
- A controlled excavation is planned with Thuringia’s heritage authority, with proposed genetic analyses in collaboration with the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.