Archaeologists have found the remains of victims of the medieval plague in Germany.

An international team of archaeologists, including researchers from the University of Leipzig, claims to have discovered in Germany one of the mass graves from the time of the Black Death — the plague epidemic (Yersinia pestis), which claimed up to half of the European population between 1346 and 1353. This was reported on January 13 by Popular Science magazine.

Modern sources report that about 12,000 people died during the outbreak of the plague around 1350 in the area of Erfurt (present-day federal state of Thuringia). However, despite numerous historical evidences, over the centuries none of the 11 described mass graves could be accurately localized.

According to the publication, the site of the discovery turned out to be a plot of land near the abandoned medieval village of Noyes, which contains signs of human remains and mixed soils with which the bodies were covered in a hurry.

"Our results strongly suggest that we have pinpointed the exact location of one of the mass graves of plague victims described in the Erfurt Chronicles," explained Michael Hein, co—author of the study and geographer at the University of Leipzig.

The peculiarity of the find lies not only in its content, but also in the method of detection. Instead of an accidental discovery during construction work, the archaeologists applied an interdisciplinary approach and used resistance electrotomography, a geophysical technology that allows detecting differences in soil structure by measuring its electrical conductivity.

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It is specified that at one of the sites the team recorded an area with a clearly disturbed precipitation pattern. The drilling cores showed a mixture of geological layers and fragments of human bones. Radiocarbon dating has confirmed that the remains date back to the 14th century, indicating a medieval mass grave.

The composition of the soil also supports the theory of plague burial. The village of Noises was located in an area of fertile black soil, but the grave is located in a drier area near the edge of the Gera River valley. According to the researchers, the inhabitants preferred to bury those who died of the plague away from the settlement and in less humid conditions.

"This discovery is consistent with both modern soil science theory and the medieval "miasma theory," according to which diseases spread through "bad air" and "vapors" formed during the decomposition of organic substances," said Martin Bauch, co—author of the work from the Leibniz Institute of History and Culture of Eastern Europe.

It will be possible to definitively confirm the hypothesis only after full-scale excavations. Nevertheless, the researchers believe that the proposed method opens up new possibilities for searching for such graves and can be used in other archaeological research.

On January 11, Live Science magazine reported the discovery in Turkey of an ancient tomb that could belong to members of the family of King Midas, who ruled Phrygia in the 8th century BC. It was clarified that the monumental Karayagach mound is located in the Blzyuk region in the north-west of the country. The researchers argue that such a distant location may hint at the distribution of political power in Phrygia across the territory of the state, and not exclusively in the capital.

All important news is on the Izvestia channel in the MAX messenger.