 Felly, gydaeth y slopol yn yng Ngheithnos, hefyd yma o bobl biarchiologa a'r hynod rhaglen gan gwybod ei hunanol yma i wych. Fy fydd ymgynghoriwn i'ch uchuno'r ariotwg melifau a'r ddechrau i'r mae'rромi yn Gweithlidolwyr Llywodraeth o Chysylltu Llywodraeth yn y Gwyrdd Fawr, fe wneud am Ielon Lcynodol, i Gweithlidolwyr Llywodraeth. I will briefly introduce the nature of the Medieval Hospital in England and the Hospital of St James leading into an exploration of the demographic profile of the cemetery and as discussion about the bioarchaeological techniques that I intend to apply. So, hospitals of Medieval England were religious institutions that provided arms and hospitality. They cared for the individual through their sole, clean living, dire and shelter, and they're commonly categorised into poor men categories, which are those that cared for the lefers, those that cared for the sick poor, those who run as arms houses and those that acted as hospitals or hospices for the poor wayfarer or pilgrim. The hospital community consisted of religious and labour since cohabiting in one establishment, and this most commonly consisted of 12 inmates, a single hospital master, 10 laying clerical brothers and six or so servitors. The combination of these people is vital in developing our understanding of the hospital's demographics and its social functions. And then, just quickly, of the approximated 1,146 hospitals operating in Medieval England and Wales, less than 5% have been subject to archaeological investigation so far, so it's quite a good opportunity. So, the hospital of St James was excavated from 2011 in 2016. It provides the opportunity to explore a rural Medieval hospital set on the boundary of a monastic precinct and the only known historical documentation to the hospital was written in the Thornton Chronicle in 1322, which states that repairs were made to the chapel of St James at the hospital without the walls. And although the whole chronicle hasn't been translated yet, so there may be more in there, that's all we have at the moment. So, in order to gain a broader insight into the hospital, three skeletons who had radiocarbon data and carried out on them, the results turned up calibrated dates from 1295 to 1440, although you can see that each individual produced more accurate dates. This combines with the reference made in the Thornton Chronicle, which shows the hospital was in use in 1322, and it must have been for some time considering they were making repairs to it, you would think. And then also with the Graves Lab, which was discovered within the hospital chapel, on which a year of death was dated to be 1317. So, in this case, the archaeological and historical record worked together to provide a wartime frame of the cemetery, as well as specific events that happened within its lifetime. The Grave in question offered an exceptional opportunity to display the integration of the historical and bioarchaeological evidence. It was possible to identify the individual as the Graves Lab states their name, which was Richard Dwisbetham. His death was on the 13th of April, 1317, and the evidence as to his occupation is on there. As you can see in the main portion of the Graves Lab, it depicts a man in clerical robes with taunsel tear and holding a chalice, which are all representative of a priest or canon at the time. On inspection, the skeleton confirmed what we know so far that it was in fact a male. He was approximately 36 to 45 years at his time of death, and this is emphasised that the cooperation of material culture and skeletal remains can produce extensive biographical information more than either could have produced by itself. An analysis of the whole cemetery population is currently being conducted to gain a better understanding of the broad demographics of the site. So far 110 of the 195 skeletons has revealed an unconventional demographic, both the distribution of biological sex and age at death presented extremes. So firstly, females account for just 1.8% of the cemetery population. The high male presence is indicative of a monastic community for which a single sex population is apparent across many monastic sites throughout Britain. However, you would expect a higher female presence here considering the exceptionally high number of non-adults, some of which were as young as three months at the time of death. So the age distribution for the population demonstrates that a large 48% were age 17 years and younger at death. With those age 6 to 11 years, accounting for the highest proportion at just over 26% of the population, this proportion of immature individuals is unprecedented at hospital cemeteries across England. The closest comparison you can see here is St Mary's special in London, where 33% of the population were 15 years under their age. So this significant difference suggests that something special or slightly weird is going on at our hospital. The paleo pathological evidence starts to shed light on this population. Firstly, among the adult population, four individuals presented the size of dish, a condition of the spine which is linked to calorie consumption and therefore indicative of a high status lifestyle. Whilst ten individuals presented with creeper orbitalia, a condition associated with dietary deficiencies, the presence of these two conditions together suggests that the population is consuming different diets and that they have had a different status of diet at the time. Individuals also presented with conditions that are called for medical intervention or long-term care. We have an individual here, which has an amputation to just distal of the knee joint and then the far one is of a break to the proxmal femur, both of which show really good signs of healing and that these individuals live through them and live for some time. Whilst when we look at the immature population, 18 presented with underdeveloped growth of their long bones when compared with age attained by their dental development, indicating the possible effects of suppressed immunological systems or malnutrition. One individual, which you can see on the end here, presented with synastotic scapicephaly, which is the fusion of the sagittal suture from the front to the back of the skull, which restricts the skull's growth and can lead to serious complications including deformities, increased cranial pressure, seizures and developmental delays. So, from this individual alone, it's evident that the hospital was housing some seriously ill individuals. Finally, in the middle here, we have an individual that presented with osteomyelitis of the forearm. This infection is usually as a result of a break, but there was no break present on this individual. The only other form is when the infection gets into your bloodstream. Again, it can happen to a perfectly healthy individual, but it has seriously debilitating and possibly life-threatening results. Being presented with such a myriad of conditions, a number of methodologies are required to assess the full extent of the population's conditions and the outcomes they reflect. So, it's evident from the pathological data that an examination of diet would be useful to look at nutritional consumption and resource distribution among the hospital. Considering the dating evidence, this line of inquiry will look for evidence of the great famine via nutritional status, and this will reflect the impact of the 13th and 14th centuries downturn on this rural, monastic and charitable institution. It will be used to investigate indications of social grouping among the populations, so the late population versus the religious or monastic population. The control for this will be to look for deprivation among those with creeper orbitalia and excess calorie consumption by those with Dish. This is possible as carbon isotopes indicate ratios of plant, marine and terrestrial protein. Finally, carbon isotopes, isotope ratios derived from the teeth will be utilised to explore whether ill health in immatures is related to undernourishment, considering the high proportion of them with the skeletal stunted growth. This methodology will add to our understanding of the larger social, economic and political issues at the time among this niche population. Hospitals for the poor, wafer and pilgrims are a category in their own right. The need for such establishments rose in line with the establishment of pilgrim routes throughout the country, and were called for as many people going on pilgrim ridges were motivated to do so as a result of ill health. The analysis of oxygen and stratium, stratium and lead isotopes, will be utilised to explore the possibility of people who have migrated to the hospital within Britain or from further afield. Lead isotopes can be used to trace the level of pollutants an individual has been exposed to and therefore individuals from rural origins will have lower levels to arrive from local rocks and soils, whereas those from urban locations which have travelled to the hospital which have much higher traces. This all helped to paint a picture of the hospital's inmates by establishing where they came for and why they were travelling to this particular place. Finally, within the hospital 26 select burials which are the dark green phase of burial you can see here, were entered in a discrete phase of burial which composed of one triple, four doubles and five single burials. These are comprised of males and immatures with one possible female. This raises queries as to the reasoning behind such burial practices. The theory which has provoked much discussion is the possibility of familial relations, however in an archaeological context you usually find that it's mother and child or two immature individuals that are interred in these two double burials. The application of DNA analysis would generate an understanding of the genetic affiliation of the individuals achieved through the application of hierarchical DNA with a primary aim of addressing paternal lineage and this line of investigation will either result in a successful identification of familial relations or it will establish that the choice of burial practice was the result of something else maybe more practical means but we just don't know yet. Also from the DNA analysis it would be really interesting if we can sex the non-adults and therefore see if they're following the same trend in sex bias as to who's been accepted to the hospital. Just to conclude it's evident that the combination of bioarchaeological research methods with historical research produces a more comprehensive understanding of the medieval hospital. This research will go on to incorporate accounts of monastic caregiving and systems of relief to further elucidate the presence of the individuals with severe health conditions at the hospital and to assess the location of the hospital on the precinct boundary. The presence of children adds an interest in an unexpected addition to the hospital which we didn't expect by establishing the function of the hospital such as who it cared for it will be possible to discuss the role of the hospital in more depth and in relation to the wider community therefore giving a broader understanding of the role of the rural hospital because a lot of hospitals that have been looked at so far are in urban locations so it's quite a unique opportunity that we have.