plague pit
Epidemic burial site
A plague pit is a mass grave for victims of epidemic disease, especially the bubonic plague.
During outbreaks when deaths overwhelmed normal burial capacity, bodies were interred together in large trenches or pits.
The term appears most often in historical contexts: Workers discovered a medieval plague pit during construction.
Plague pits are sometimes unearthed in European cities, reminders of catastrophic mortality from the Black Death and later epidemics.
- mass graveShared burial for many
- mass burialCollective interment of bodies
- burial groundLand for interring remains
- burialPlacing deceased underground
- unmarked graveBurial site without identification
Black Death · corpses · dead bodies · bones · excavation · epidemic · contagion · pestilence · lime · skulls · medieval · London · bring out your dead · bodies · death · rats · fleas · cemetery
- PlagueBlack Death, Yersinia pestis, buboes, zoonotic disease
- plaguesBlack Death, pestilence, pandemic, epidemic, buboes
- epidemicsepidemic, pandemic, outbreak, disease, Black Death
- forbidden placesno-go zone, no-go area, restricted area, restricted zone, black site
plague pitmausoleum
Monumental building for interment
consecrated ground · family tomb · memorial garden · royal tomb · Arlington National Cemetery
plague, pit, plagues, plagued, plaguing, pits, pitted, pitting