Research confirms that the Black Death reached Kutná Hora in the Middle Ages
The plague epidemic in the mid-14th century hit Bohemia harder than experts had previously assumed, coming three decades after a great famine. The extent of the damage caused by one of the worst killers in human history was revealed by archaeological research conducted along the Chapel of All Saints in Kutná Hora Sedlec. Experts from the Institute of Archaeology of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague examined mass graves found right next to Europe's largest ossuary.
Famine and the Black Death struck the Czech lands in quick succession. The former is described in written sources from 1318 AD, while the plague raged between 1348 and 1350 AD. Scientists have attempted to link the mass graves found in Kutná Hora, of which there are 32 in total, to these events based on the teeth and bones of selected individuals.
Based on archaeological data, five mass graves from the famine period and eight from the plague epidemic period were identified. For the remaining cases, where clear archaeological evidence was lacking, scientists performed a statistical analysis based on Bayes' theorem, which forms the basis for some types of machine learning. In the case of Kutná Hora, this analysis showed a correlation with one of the above events in two-thirds of cases. "The research has significantly contributed to revealing the extent of the plague, which was previously believed to have had only a minor impact on the Czech landscape, and to confirming the famine," said anthropologist Jiří Šneberger from the Institute of Archaeology of the Czech Academy of Sciences.
Both disasters examined were only partially mentioned in written sources in the case of Kutná Hora. In 1318, burials "in front of the Sedlec gate" are mentioned near Kutná Hora. We have only sporadic reports of the plague in Bohemia in 1348–1350 AD, but in the case of Kutná Hora, there are none at all. "It was generally believed that the plague epidemic did not reach Bohemia at that time, but new research refutes this," said Šneberger, according to whom the set of skeletal remains from mass graves in Kutná Hora is the largest of its kind analyzed in Europe to date. "Thanks to archaeological research, we have obtained unique data on the population of a rapidly developing city in connection with clearly defined time periods," added Šneberger.
Rescue research in Kutná Hora-Sedlec took place in two stages between 2016 and 2023. An important part of this was the discovery of 32 mass graves outside the ossuary. A total of 1,861 burials (skeletons) were examined, more than half of which were placed in mass graves. A total of 907 individuals were anthropologically evaluated, 322 of whom were young. "The total number of mass graves remains unknown, as does the extent of the cemetery, but the situation suggests that the mass graves were dug on the northern edge of the cemetery," added Šneberger.
The Chapel of All Saints with its ossuary in Kutná Hora-Sedlec is a unique monument even on a global scale. The chapel is located in a former lay cemetery as part of a now defunct Cistercian monastery. It was built after 1380 AD, shortly after the plague. It was repaired at the end of the 15th century after damage during the Hussite Wars and fundamentally rebuilt by the famous architect Jan Blažej Santini Aichel at the beginning of the 18th century. The interior is decorated with human bones from the 16th century. The bones that adorn the interior of the ossuary come from tens of thousands of individuals. The mass graves from the times of the plague and famine are therefore older than the chapel itself, but they form a single funeral complex.
