Researchers at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) have given anonymous medieval city dwellers a face and a voice through interdisciplinary research on more than 1,000 excavated skeletons featured in the summer exhibition wONDERLAND at the Yper Museum, according to project coordinators.
How Urban Excavations Replaced Destroyed Archives in Ypres
During World War I, Ypres was virtually razed to the ground, taking the entire city archive in the cloth halls down with it. For decades, historians were left in the dark about the daily lives of the population until recent large-scale urban regeneration projects uncovered human remains from the West Flemish clay soil.
Archaeologists excavated several thousand skeletons from three distinct sites, including two parish churchyards at St. Nicholas and St. Martin, alongside a leper colony named Hooge Siecken. According to VUB Professor Dr. Bart Lambert, coordinator of the VUB component of the historical section, this lack of written sources transformed into a scientific advantage. Researchers are currently conducting centuries-old crime scene investigations using the preserved remains.
Challenging Medieval Mobility Cliches Through Isotope Analysis
Despite Ypres functioning as a thriving 13th-century metropolis with roughly 30,000 inhabitants renowned for its cloth industry, chemical analyses of the bone material reveal a surprising local picture. VUB researchers Rachèl Spros, Charlotte Van Riet, and Lucy Koster, supervised by Christophe Snoeck, used advanced isotope analysis to map population mobility.
The results challenge persistent cliches regarding medieval demographics. According to the research team, long-distance migrants were rare despite the international cloth trade, and the vast majority of buried individuals originated locally or regionally. Furthermore, regional mobility was driven at least as much by women as by men, directly contradicting the traditional image of the sedentary medieval woman.
Uncovering Elite Knights and Industrial Laborers
The exhibition highlights the skeleton of an 11th-century man buried in a prestigious iron sandstone tomb before the first recorded mention of the name Ypres. A team of osteologists led by Barbara Veselka, in collaboration with the Department of Anatomy and Traumatology at UZ Brussels, analyzed the remains.
According to researcher Martijn Jacobs, the analysis revealed that the man suffered from horse-rider syndrome, a specific bony overgrowth on the hip bone caused by intensive horseback riding. Isotope data indicates he grew up locally, pointing to an early local elite and a true-born, self-made leader from Ypres. Meanwhile, ordinary laborers left physical markers on their skeletons as well, with researcher-noted deep notches found in the teeth of numerous 13th-century individuals caused by the repeated cleaning or tightening of threads used in spinning and weaving industries.
Frequently Asked Questions
What caused the loss of historical records in Ypres?
The entire city archive was destroyed when Ypres was razed to the ground and the cloth halls burned down during World War I.
How did researchers determine the origins of the medieval skeletons?
VUB researchers used advanced isotope analysis on bone material to map population mobility and trace the regional origins of the buried individuals.
What is horse-rider syndrome?
It is a specific bony overgrowth on the hip bone caused by intensive horseback riding, which was identified on the skeleton of an 11th-century man from Ypres.
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