Dating the Justinianic Plague in England: integrating historical and archaeological data on the early Cambridgeshire region

Archaeogenetic analysis has retrieved evidence of the presence of <i>Yersinia pestis</i>, the pathogen of bubonic plague, from graves in the Early Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Edix Hill, Cambridgeshire. Associated grave goods there, and some radiocarbon dates from Germany, suggested that the plague may have been present before the historically recorded outbreak of the 540s known as the Justinianic Plague. Targeted high-precision radiocarbon dating, however, largely confirms the conventional historical chronology. Concurrent re-examination of multiple methodological and empirical issues informatively reveals complex issues within radiocarbon data, and significant disjunctions in the phased sequence of both female and male accoutrements in this part of Anglo-Saxon England across the middle of the sixth century, when the populations were also having to accommodate themselves to the onset of the Late Antique Little Ice Age.