Beneath London a city of skeletons

Nope. Not a horror movie. Underneath the city of London, lies a great number of skeletons. All cities which have been inhabited for centuries would also have similar hordes of the deceased buried benath.

The dead bodies are often uncovered when excavation work is being done. What I found disturbing was that some of the viruses which killed the ancients are still ... alive.

“At Christchurch in Spitalfields they found someone with smallpox scars in soft tissue. They dropped it and ran away. They sent it to one of the two laboratories in the world that can deal with smallpox.”

Smallpox is a highly infectious disease that has killed millions of people.

It is now routine to rebury unbreached lead-lined coffins without opening them in case the disease that killed the occupant is still a threat.

Lovely. I'm going to buy some oranges now.