IMC 2003: Sessions

Session 1523: The Experience of Leprosy in the Middle Ages, I

Sponsor:	Medica
Organiser:	Isla Fay, School of History, University of East Anglia
Moderator/Chair:	Carole Rawcliffe, School of History, University of East Anglia
Paper 1523-a	Devotion and Leprosy in the Middle English Romance Amis and Amiloun (Language: English) Bryon Grigsby, Department of English & Communications, Centenary College, New Jersey Index terms: Language and Literature - Middle English, Medicine, Theology
Paper 1523-b	The Antiquity of Leprosy in Britain: The Skeletal Evidence (Language: English) Charlotte Ann Roberts, Department of Archaeology, Durham University Index terms: Anthropology, Archaeology - Sites, Daily Life
Paper 1523-c	Leper Burials at St John de Berstrete (Timber Hill), Norwich (Language: English) Elizabeth J. Popescu, Norfolk Archaeological Unit, Norwich Index terms: Anthropology, Archaeology - Sites
Abstract	The first paper uses text to illuminate how social and intellectual structures acted as moral filters for attitudes to leprosy in the medieval period. It focuses upon the association of the disease with spiritual sin. The second paper surveys evidence of leprosy in British skeletal remains and burial contexts in order to promote the integration of osteoarchaeological with historical approaches to studying the disease. Finally, a case study utilises radiocarbon dating and stable isotope research in order to explore the mores that governed segregation and temporal shifts in the status of infected individuals during the Saxo-Norman period.