Dr Piers Mitchell

Piers Mitchell is an orthopaedic surgeon and also an osteoarchaeologist. He teaches palaeopathology to the medical students at Imperial College London. His research interests centre on disease in the crusades to the medieval eastern Mediterranean (12th-13th centuries).

His recent archaeological discoveries include finding the earliest case of syphilis in the Middle East (14th century AD), the earliest examples of fish tapeworm in the Middle East (13th century), and the earliest cases of psoriatic arthritis in the Middle East (5th century).

His current archaeological projects include an analysis of the weapon injuries to be found in the slaughtered garrison of a crusader castle in Galilee (1179 AD), parasitic intestinal helminth ova from a medieval latrine in Acre, and bone and dental isotope analysis of crusader period sites for evidence of medieval diet and migration of peoples.

Symposium:
Piers organised the first ever symposium on Medicine and Disease in the Crusades, held on Friday 28th January 2005 at University College London.

Invited speakers from Britain, France, Germany, Israel and the USA discussed archaeological topics including the excavation of crusader period hospitals, human skeletal remains, pharmacy jars and latrines. Historical topics included medical practitioners in the crusader period, medical treatment in the Order of St John, people with leprosy in the order of St Lazarus, and the translation of medieval Arabic medical texts into Latin for use in Europe.

Media appearances

Dr Mitchell  has been featured on a number of television programmes. These include:

• 'In search of syphilis', BBC2, September 2002
• 'Moments in time: the Crusades', Discovery Channel, August 2003
• 'Holy Warriors: Richard and Saladin', BBC2, December  2004
• 'The Crusades', BBC2, May 2005
• 'The Crusaders' Lost Fort', Timewatch, BBC2, April 2006
• Radio interviews discussing his reasearch, most recently on BBC Radio 4 (Today Programme) in March 2006, regarding the cruxifixion study

Guest Lectures

• Department of History and Archaeology, University of Cardiff, 2004
• Department of Archaeology, University of Southampton, 2004
• John Ash Lecture in the History of Medicine, University of Birmingham, 2005
• Conference of the British Association for Biological Anthropology and Osteoarchaeology (BABAO), September 2006
• Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Sydney, Australia, 2007
• Conference on Medieval Medical History, University of North Carolina, USA, 2007

Research Collaborations include:

University of Durham, with Dr Andrew Millard, Department of Archaeology - Stable isotope analysis of excavated teeth to understand the migration of peoples between Europe and the Middle East during the medieval period (12-13th centuries AD).

Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, with Professor Ronnie Ellenblum - Research into medieval war wounds at the battle of Jacobs Ford Castle in Galilee, in 1179.

University of Reading, with Dr Gundula Muldner, Department of Archaeology - Stable isotope analysis of excavated bone to determine medieval diet in the Middle East during the crusader period.

University of Bar-Ilan, with Prof Aren Meir, Department of Archaeology - Archaeological study of health and disease at the crusader castle of Blanchegarde, Israel. 

Museum of London, with Dr Rebecca Redfern, Human Osteology Unit - Study of developmental dysplasia of the hip in the medieval burials from Spitalfields cemetary.