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A review by shanaqui
Crypt by Alice Roberts
informative
medium-paced
5.0
I was really excited about Alice Roberts' Crypt coming out, because I enjoyed both Ancestors (https://breathesbooks.com/2021/07/14/review-ancestors/) and Buried (https://breathesbooks.com/2023/01/22/review-buried/), and this essentially concludes the trilogy, making it a survey through time about burial practices and archaeological finds in Britain. Crypt in particular was extra-exciting to me because it promised to discuss palaeo/archaeopathology, meaning looking in more depth at how people died, including whether infectious disease may have been involved. There are three chapters (of the seven) which deal heavily with this, discussing leprosy (Mycobacterium leprae), the Black Death (Yersinia pestis), and syphilis (Treponema pallidum) -- obviously right up my street as someone who is fascinated by infectious disease (and especially leprosy's cousin, Mycobacterium tuberculosis).
It was everything I'd hoped for, discussing deaths throughout the Middle Ages and going pretty in-depth about the stories we can see written into bone, plus the ways we've been able to find the trace of infectious diseases that are less apparent, or potentially ambiguous. The methods used weren't too much of a surprise to me ("fishing" for ancient disease DNA using primers definitely occurred to me as a possibility), but it's still fascinating to see it discussed at a bit more length.
As usual, Roberts writes clearly and engagingly, though maybe I could've done with slightly less about Henry VIII's Mary Rose -- I get that context is important, but I'm just not that interested in the Tudors and their squabbles, and I think it could've done with a bit less about that.
One thing I do wish is that the book used numbered references. I know it's for a wider audience, but it's so hard to follow up any particular interesting claim if I can't find the paper or book it's from, even when a detailed references section is included (as here).
Still, I enjoyed it very much, and I wish I had three more lined up just like it.
It was everything I'd hoped for, discussing deaths throughout the Middle Ages and going pretty in-depth about the stories we can see written into bone, plus the ways we've been able to find the trace of infectious diseases that are less apparent, or potentially ambiguous. The methods used weren't too much of a surprise to me ("fishing" for ancient disease DNA using primers definitely occurred to me as a possibility), but it's still fascinating to see it discussed at a bit more length.
As usual, Roberts writes clearly and engagingly, though maybe I could've done with slightly less about Henry VIII's Mary Rose -- I get that context is important, but I'm just not that interested in the Tudors and their squabbles, and I think it could've done with a bit less about that.
One thing I do wish is that the book used numbered references. I know it's for a wider audience, but it's so hard to follow up any particular interesting claim if I can't find the paper or book it's from, even when a detailed references section is included (as here).
Still, I enjoyed it very much, and I wish I had three more lined up just like it.