As the buried skeletons influenced the construction of the London underground

Yesterday, we wrote here that archaeologists have discovered a number of skeletons in the expansion works of the Mexico City metro, leaving on standby to new infrastructure and molding, perhaps, the location of future seasons.

The phenomenon, however, is not restricted to Mexico City. In London, according to the book Necropolis: London and Its Dead, the construction of The Tube-one of the most amazing and complete metro systems in the world â€" was highly complex. Due in part to the large amount of skeletons that the soil is home to London.

According to the author of the book, Catharine Arnold, the city is completely full of bodies, improvised cemeteries and wells created during the time of the black death. These eventually influence the location and construction of metro stations.

The author also gives a clear example of the difficulty with which planners and engineers found themselves in the middle of the 19th century, when the construction of the subway and ripped solidified its expansion. There is a clear change of direction on the Piccadilly line, East of South Kensington. "Actually, the curve tunnel between Knightsbridge and South Kensington stations because it was impossible to stick to the mass of skeletons that remains buried in Hyde Park," explained Arnold.

In other words: the soil is so dense, due to the interconnectedness of the skeletons of victims of the great plague in the 17th century, that the excavation teams from The Tube, 200 years later, failed to even enter this land.

The metro bypasses to avoid this incredible congestion of skulls, legs and arms attached to the ground â€" an artificial geology made from people. Interestingly, after all this time, as the city was molded to the expansion of the metro, to buildings built later, and how it all broke the decisions taken for several centuries.

In short: urban planners from 200 and 300 years â€" as well as decision-makers and public hygiene authorities-unintended London's current influencers were. You can meet other histories of the book here.

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