Four lead mortuary crosses from Grey Friars, Newgate Street

What it is

These are lead mortuary crosses, held by the Wellcome Collection in London. According to the curator's note, they were placed on plague victims and were found at a London friary site, the old Grey Friars Monastery on Newgate Street. The image in this archive shows replicas of the crosses, not the original objects. The replicas show four grey, cross-shaped pieces with rough, dull surfaces.

Why it matters

The Black Death killed a very large part of the population of Eurasia and North Africa between 1346 and 1353. Burial objects like these show that people buried plague victims with religious symbols even in a time of fear and crisis. They also give historians physical evidence, not only written accounts, of how the dead were treated.

Look closer

• What do the crosses look like, and how are they different from one another?
• Why might a cross have been placed on the body of a plague victim?
• Since these are replicas, what questions would you still want to ask about the originals and where they were found?