Rich medieval Christians bought graves 'closer to God' despite leprosy stigma, archaeologists find‎

Medieval Christians in Denmark showed off their wealth in death by buying prestigious graves: the closer to the church, the higher the price. Researchers used these gravesites to investigate social exclusion based on illness, by studying whether people with leprosy—a highly stigmatized disease culturally associated with sin—or tuberculosis were kept out of the higher-status areas.