Lead Mortuary Cross
- Made:
- 1340-1350 CE in England
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LicenseThis image is released under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Licence
Buy this image as a print
BuyLicense this image for commercial use at Science and Society Picture Library
LicenseThis image is released under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Licence
Buy this image as a print
BuyLicense this image for commercial use at Science and Society Picture Library
License
Science Museum Group Collection
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
Science Museum Group Collection
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
Science Museum Group Collection
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
Crudely cut lead mortuary cross, described as being from a victim of the Black Death, England, 1348.
The Black Death was a pandemic of bubonic plague which swept across Asia and Europe between 1346 and 1353. It killed many millions, possibly around half of those living in the areas affected and had a huge and lasting impact on those societies,
The disease struck the UK in 1348 and this simple lead cross was believed to date from that period. However, later research has suggested that this and other crosses in the museum’s collection may date from a later era. It was possibly made for a prisoner who had died of typhus, referred to historically as ‘gaol distemper’, during the 1700s.
Details
- Category:
- Classical & Medieval Medicine
- Collection:
- Sir Henry Wellcome's Museum Collection
- Object Number:
- A9076
- Measurements:
-
overall: 106 mm x 109 mm x 1 mm, .048 kg
- type:
- mortuary cross
- credit:
- Wellcome Trust (Purchased from Stevens)
