Beyond the Gate: A Multidisciplinary Approach for Reconstructing the Lived Experience of Medieval Leprosy Sufferers

麻风病患者真的被社会边缘化了吗？麻风病患者真的是一个慈善、人道关怀的场所吗？目前，我们对中世纪患病经历的了解严重依赖历史资料，这些资料相当笼统，而且过于消极。在一些国家，历史记录表明，麻风病坚持基于地位和性别的选择标准，并自愿接受。由于中世纪英格兰关于麻风病人的详细记录有限，因此需要其他有效的方法来评估这一时期生活经历的变化。这项研究将采用多学科方法，分析从盎格鲁-撒克逊时期到中世纪时期各种麻风和教区墓地的个体之间的生物标记差异。骨考古分析可以提供死亡年龄、性别、身材和病理的估计，而同位素数据可以暗示不同的饮食和身份模式。此外，aDNA可以独立于骨骼表达证实麻风病感染。获得的数据将允许人口水平的方法，以及通过他们的骨骼传记重建个人生活史。这一证据组合可用于深入了解受感染者的社会治疗和生活经历，并可仔细检查我们对中世纪麻风病人社会污名化的现代信念。

Were leprosy sufferers truly shunned to the edge of society or were leprosaria a site of charitable, humane care? At present, our knowledge surrounding the experience of having the disease in the medieval period is heavily reliant on historical sources, which are quite generalised and overly negative. In some countries, historical records have shown leprosaria to uphold selection criteria based on status and sex, with voluntary admission. Since detailed records about leprosaria patients are limited for medieval England, other effective means to assess variation in life experience during this period are needed. This study will take a multidisciplinary approach to analyse the differences in biological markers between individuals from various leprosaria and parish cemeteries from Anglo-Saxon to medieval times. Osteoarchaeological analyses can provide estimations of age-at-death, sex, stature and pathology, whereas isotopic data can hint towards varying dietary and status patterns. Additionally, aDNA can confirm leprosy infection independent of skeletal expression. The obtained data will allow for a population-level approach, as well as reconstruction of individual life histories through their osteobiography. This combination of evidence can be used to provide insight into the social treatment and life experiences of those infected, and can scrutinize our modern beliefs concerning social stigmatization of lepers in medieval times.