14th Century Tooth Reveals Grim Fate of Edinburgh Teen Killed by the Black Death

The city of Edinburgh, Scotland, along with the prominent St. Giles Cathedral, recently celebrated its 900th anniversary. As part of this joint celebration, St Giles Cathedral hosted an exhibition showcasing the lives of some of Edinburgh’s earliest residents.

Data extracted from the remains of these individuals, buried at St. Giles and exhumed in 1981, revealed their health, diet and even their faces, digitally reconstructed. But one of the most fascinating discoveries came from a teenager. After analyzing his teeth, researchers discovered that he likely died from the Black Death – or bubonic plague.

Learn more: The Black Death bacteria evolved to be less aggressive and slowly kill victims

The Black Death discovered in Saint-Gilles Cathedral

In 1981, a team of researchers began excavating an area of ​​Saint-Gilles Cathedral before a renovation project was undertaken. During their excavations, researchers discovered pottery, ceramic building materials, bone objects, metal fragments, medieval glass, coins and more than 100 human remains. After the excavations, the remains were stored in the city archives until recently.

As part of the city’s 900th anniversary, researchers from the Francis Crick Institute in London and the universities of Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dundee have teamed up to bring some life back to these inhabitants of yesteryear.

One of the discovered skeletons belonged to a teenager who died during the 14th century. Researchers at the Francis Crick Institute in London examined the boy’s teeth, carrying out isotope analysis of his plaque, as well as DNA sequencing and radiocarbon dating.

In the plaque, the team found bubonic plague pathogens, providing the first scientific evidence of the Black Death in Edinburgh, according to the BBC.

Plague outbreak in Edinburgh

The bacteria Yersinia pestis was the main cause of the Black Death, which plagued all of Europe for centuries. It wasn’t until the 19th century that doctors discovered that fleas on infected rats spread the Black Death. The fleas bit infected rats, then jumped onto human victims, biting them and spreading the bacteria.

The name Black Death comes from the fact that some patients had skin lesions and gangrene, which turned the skin black.

According to the National Library of Scotland, the plague first arrived in Scotland in 669 CE, although it was mainly confined to areas around Edinburgh. However, in the mid-1300s, Scotland experienced an epidemic-level outbreak of the plague. These outbreaks coincide with the death of the teenager buried at St. Giles.

What is interesting to note is that during these plague epidemics, so many people died that the deceased were buried together in mass graves. The St. Giles boy, however, was buried carefully.

Gone but not forgotten

As well as finding scientific evidence of the Black Death, the excavations and work carried out by the multi-institutional research team have brought back artefacts and stories from some of Edinburgh’s earliest inhabitants.

Maria Maclennan, a lecturer at the University of Edinburgh, led a forensic facial reconstruction project on five of the human remains exhumed from St. Giles. These are on display at St. Giles until November 2025.

Further research has identified the diet, health and even lineage of those once buried in the cathedral.

“This is a fascinating project that brings together new archaeological science and the creative arts to tell the story of Edinburgh’s first inhabitants in an imaginative and exciting way,” John Lawson, Edinburgh City Council archaeologist, said in a press release.

“Visitors to the exhibition will come face-to-face with the city’s first inhabitants, ordinary individuals who lived through extraordinary chapters of history. While we are accustomed to stories of famous and powerful people, this project focuses attention on ordinary citizens, telling their stories in the very place where they once walked, worshiped and rested,” concluded Lawson.

Learn more: Medieval squirrels were the first hosts of leprosy

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