Tony Grist (poliphilo) wrote,
Tony Grist
poliphilo

Fat Monks

According to Pip Patrick (article in Current Archaeology 198) the stereotype of the fat, jolly monk has some basis in fact.

Pip did a study of skeletons from a number of medieval cemetries in London and found that monks "were five times as likely to develop some form of obesity-related joint disease as their secular counterparts."

Nice to find science (for once) confirming rather that debunking myth.
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  • Supplementary

    The cover picture on that book I dreamed about looked a lot like this.....

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