Was the mortality associated with the deadliest known epidemic in human history, the Black Death of 1347-1351, selective with respect to preexisting health conditions ("frailty")? Many researchers have assumed that the Black Death was so virulent, and the European population so immunologically naïve, that the epidemic killed indiscriminately, irrespective of age, sex, or frailty. If this were t...

We report here the results of mtDNA analysis of remains exhumed in July, 1995 from Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Kearney, Nebraska, that are thought to be those of Jesse James. The remains were poorly preserved, presumably due to wet and slightly acidic soil conditions, and insufficient DNA for analysis was obtained from two bone samples. However, two of four teeth, and two hairs recovered in 1978 fro...

Abstract Estimates suggest that over 15,000 people are buried at East End Cemetery, a historic African American cemetery in Richmond, Virginia, until recently received no public funding for upkeep. Here, we present case study analysis and potentially replicable methodology counting locating unmarked burial depressions non-forested areas using low-cost sUAV (drone) simple, hydrology-based geogra...

The skeletal remains of 17 people buried in the Eaton Ferry Cemetery in northern North Carolina provide a means of examining health and infectious disease experience in the XIX century South. The cemetery appears to contain the remains of African Americans enslaved on the Eaton family estate from approximately 1830-1850, and thus offers a window into the biological impacts of North American sla...

Black crust, or gypsum crust, is a surficial accumulation of atmospheric deposits in a gypsum matrix, which is often firmly bonded to the substrate. This condition is ubiquitous on marble buildings, not only threatening the historic fabric, but also leading to aesthetic damage. Laser ablation cleaning has become a popular method to remove black crust from masonry surface. This study focuses on ...

The aim of this study is to examine how well different informative priors model age-at-death in Bayesian statistics, which will shed light on how the skeleton ages, particularly at the sacroiliac joint. Data from four samples were compared for their performance as informative priors for auricular surface age-at-death estimation: (1) American population from US Census data; (2) county data from ...

This paper examines adult age-specific mortality patterns of one of the most devastating epidemics in recorded history, the Black Death of A.D. 1347-351. The goal was to determine whether the epidemic affected all ages equally or if it targeted certain age groups. Analyses were done using a sample of 337 individuals excavated from the East Smithfield cemetery in London, which contains only indi...