Image copyright Crossrail Image caption The plague victims' bones reveal clues to their harsh lives in medieval London 
 
 Skeletons unearthed in London Crossrail excavations are Black Death victims from the great pandemic of the 14th Century, forensic tests indicate. "It's fantastic we can look in such detail at an individual who died 600 years ago," Walker said. Records say thousands of Londoners perished and their corpses were dumped in a mass grave outside the City, but its exact location was a mystery. They announced Sunday that tests had found the presence of the plague bacterium, Yersinia pestis, in several of the teeth, meaning the individuals had been exposed to—and likely died from—the Black Death. In this Wednesday, March 26, 2014 photo, Don Walker, a human osteologist with the Museum of London, poses for photographers, with one of the skeletons found by construction workers under central London's Charterhouse Square. Analysis of the skeletons' bones and teeth indicates that: 
 
 Many of the skeletons appear to suffer signs of malnutrition and 16% had rickets. Archaeologists were surprised to discover that the skeletons lay in layers and appeared to come from three different periods: the original Black Death epidemic in 1348-1350, and later outbreaks in 1361 and the early 15th century. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis) 
 
 "It suggests that the burial ground was used again and again for the burial of plague victims," said Jay Carver, Crossrail's lead archaeologist. The later skeletons, however, show more signs of upper-body injuries, consistent with a period of lawlessness and social breakdown.
– Skeletons dug up in London last year are indeed the remains of people who died from the Black Plague—and who suffered a tough life before falling ill, the BBC reports. Forensic analysis shows that teeth taken from at least four of the 12 corpses discovered during excavation for a rail line contained trace amounts of plague DNA, indicating exposure. Early burials found at the site, from the late 1340s, are nice and orderly, with bodies wrapped in white shrouds, but skeletons from a second outbreak in the 1430s are tossed in with what appear to be upper-body injuries—evidence of "a period of lawlessness and social breakdown," Phys.org reports. Among other significant details: Several skeletons suffered from malnutrition and 16% had rickets. Many had back damage, signalling stressful manual labor. Analysis of one victim is amazingly detailed: He was born outside of London, breastfed, had bad tooth decay as a boy, and worked in manual labor before dying as a young man of the Black Death. Archaeologists suspect that thousands more Black Death victims lie nearby, and a dig is planned for this summer. DNA experts are analyzing the plague genome in victims' teeth in case there's more to learn about the disease, which still kills 2,000 people per year (when antibiotics aren't applied within four days). "It is useful information that could warn and avert potential epidemics and pandemics," says a London scientist. In a similar vein, see why it's bad news that the Plague and Black Death were quite different.