Lika inför Gud, eller? : En osteologisk analys av nio individer från medeltida S:t Hans kyrkoruin i Visby

Sammanfattning: This bachelor thesis deals with the correlation between social status and health at the medieval church ruin S:t Hans in Visby. Osteological analysis has been performed on nine adult individuals from the site of S:t Hans. The material was obtained at Gotlands Museum and has diary number 7498/89. The main question was if it is possible to indicate some kind of correlation between social status, in other words the placing of the graves, and the pathological differences in the material. Age, sex, stature and pathological differences has been documented during the osteological analysis to get an understanding of the individuals health status. To understand social status at the site spatial analysis was performed. A grave was explained as ”high status” or ”low status” depending on where at the grave site these were situated. Graves in the church is considered to be of high status while the ones at the older church yard is considered to be of lower status because of its distance from the church. A hypothesis was that individuals in the high status graves would show less pathological differences than the ones in the low status graves. The results obtained from the study tells two different, but interesting, stories. Yes, social status and health status does correlate in some cases, while in other cases they don’t.