Leith tramworks are bringing up the dead, and they have something important to tell us – Susan Morrison

Our ancestors were no strangers to the threat posed by plague and pestilence. Trust me, if they could come into our world and see the hullabaloo some folk put up over sticking a bit of cloth over their mouths they’d laugh so hard their buboes would burst. If you don’t know what a bubo was, Google it, but not at meal times

They can’t time-travel to us. But just for a moment here in Leith, we’re getting face-to-face with them.

The tram works are inching their way past South Leith Parish Church kirkyard. In the 18th century, someone decided it needed a wall. Right oh, they said. We’ll just stick it along there. The fact that graves were now outside the burial ground didn’t bother the builders a hoot, and so older graves were left under the street.

The kirkyard wall was taken down to preserve it, and archaeology is being carefully carried out under what was the pavement.

They used to cover up work like this so we couldn’t see. Probably worried that folks would faint at the sight of a 16th-century skull. But they don’t. They stop and watch and ask questions. Everyone remarks on the white, strong teeth in the sandy soil.

If those long-dead Leithers could suddenly walk among us, they’d be stunned by our clever stuff, no doubt about that, but what they would really marvel at would be the number of healthy children and old folk on our streets, and by old, they would mean anyone over 40. Life expectancy in the 15th century was about 35.

Those teeth in those skulls are white and intact, partly because a lot of the people we see being unearthed are only in their twenties.

If they could have avoided the horror of the Black Death just by sticking on a mask, you bet, they would have.

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