Plague grave excavations contradict tales of naked bodies piled in pits

Archaeologists find evidence that survivors of epidemic still used coffins and buried victims in Christian east-west position

In the summer of 1665, as the great plague ripped the heart out of the medieval city of London, people were still managing to bury the dead in coffins, correctly aligned in the traditional Christian east-west position wherever possible, according to the evidence of newly excavated plague graves.

The proof from a plague pit at the Bethlem burial ground, where the last of 4,000 skeletons are being excavated before a new Crossrail station is built beside Liverpool Street station, contradicts apparent witness accounts of bodies having been thrown naked into pits.