J. Auškelis photo
Exactly a year ago, in the autumn of 2020, during the renovation of the northern wall of the Church of St. Johns of Vilnius University (VU), the remains of over 140 people were discovered in the Konstantinas Sirvydas Courtyard. Dr. Justina Kozakaitė, a researcher at the VU Faculty of Medicine, and Rūta Brindzaitė, a doctoral student, conducted a comprehensive anthropological examination and determined the gender and age of 96 individuals, 15 of whom were still children.
“The examination also revealed diseases that the dead suffered from, discovered exceptional injuries, such as multiple healed head injuries or fatal injuries, or a case of successful surgical intervention - healed foot amputation, etc. Examinations like this one help determine not only medical but also historical facts,” the doctoral student Rūta Brindzaitė said.