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Posted by Huscarl (U1753368) on Friday, 7th March 2008
"About 3,000 skeletons are to be reburied in an Anglo-Saxon ceremony at a North Lincolnshire church where they were discovered almost 30 years ago."
I don't know if you guys were aware of this burial, to be conducted respectfully in Anglo-Saxon tongue? Link here;-
now this is very interesting - and something i have always wondered about - 3000 yes - where are the other 2 million buried ??
st
, in reply to message 2.
Posted by Vizzer aka U_numbers (U2011621) on Friday, 7th March 2008
stalteriisok -
the skeletons are the remains of parishioners from a time spanning 900 years. Evened out that would work out at about 3 deaths a year. So it's not a 'mass grave' as such.
Can't attend, anyway, my Anglo-Saxon is a bit rusty.... Should one send flowers?
vizzer
aha - read attahed bbc news links
but just incidentally where did they all go - undiscovered cemeteries?
st
Is this the first time such an event has taken place in the UK. I have heard of similar burials in the USA with Native Americans but not in the UK.
, in reply to message 5.
Posted by Vizzer aka U_numbers (U2011621) on Wednesday, 12th March 2008
but just incidentally where did they all go - undiscovered cemeteries?Β
stalteriisok -
who are we talking about here - the parishioners?
I'm not sure I understand your question.
Not exactly the same, but similar - the sailors recovered from the 'Mary Rose' were buried in Portsmouth, after they had been examined. A contemporary funeral service was carried out in Portsmouth Anglican Cathedral for them.
sorry vizzer
nor do i lol
what i mean is - we keep finding anglo saxon cemeteries (or roman etc)with 30-50 internments - yet how many anglo saxons died - millions - where are they all ?
does this make sense yet ??
st
I've wondered similar, the same as battlefields- why do we only ever find a fraction of buried civilians and soldiers?
Are the archaeologists who are uncovering battle sites and town burial grounds looking in the wrong places?
I think the pre-Christian Anglo-Saxons tended to cremate their dead and bury the residue in pots (that's the impression I get from watching Time Team, anyway!)
As a general point, I imagine that the damp soil we have in this country would cause bodies/bones to decompose much more quickly than in hotter countries.
Hi WP,
You're right about pagan Saxon burials in, rather ornate, cremation urns - but that means that you can still identify the remains of a dead individual. You're also right that soil, especially acid soil, can remove bones completely (Sutton Hoo being the classic example) but the inhumations can still be identified from grave goods, or simply a recognizable grave cut.
Obviously estimating past populations is a very inexact science but it does appear that in pre-historic, Roman and Saxon periods the number of burials is less by orders of magnitude that the probable population. This is most obvious in the Iron Age when hardly any burials are known, with the exception of bog bodies, chariot burials in East Yorks and some high status inhumations in the south-east.
A Roman Britain expert once told me that lumping all burials, cemeteries and likely cemeteries together we probably have 5% of the population.
So, what did they do with the rest. Cremation with scattering of the ashes? Burial at sea? Putting bodies in rivers? Towers of silence? Anyone's guess I'm afraid.
TP
Were there any updates to this amazing story?
I have always assumed that old churchyards and cemeteries were ancient burial places in the first place. According to a grave digger - the old school with a spade talking to my father when I was a child, our cemetery is filled with ancient remains. To quote he said he also hoped he would not be around for the final trump when that lot arose.
Since it was the site of an Anglo Saxon burgh and he had no reason to lie, I assumed he was right about the many burials there.
Regards, P.
the final trump Β
Erm, I think I know what you mean
Old locals usually have great handed-down stories to tell.
sorry vizzer
nor do i lol
what i mean is - we keep finding anglo saxon cemeteries (or roman etc)with 30-50 internments - yet how many anglo saxons died - millions - where are they all ?
does this make sense yet ??
²υ³ΩΜύ
Just look at more modern period, council cemeteries started in the mid 19th Century but many towns were reasonably large by that time but there might be only a small number of graves in the town centre churchyards, if any at all.
Time team came to our town and uncovered an Anglo-Saxon burial ground.
Before that, though, Northamptonshire archaeologists decided to do an exploratory dig in a field that was going to be developed (in the 1970s). First they uncovered an early mediaeval dovecot, then the remains of a 14th century manor house. Because it was to be built over, they kept digging, and to everyone's amazement, under the manor and slightly to one side was a tiny church with an even smaller one below. Around them was a burial ground. I have tried very hard to find a photo online so I could attach a link, but without success.
The burials represented people of all ages, and some had large stones placed across the legs, to discourage the dead from 'walking'.
It appears that the small church was once the chapel of a homestead belonging to a Saxon landowner. He may have had pretensions to being a thegn, hence the buillding of a chapel where his 'people' could worship. Presumably it all fell into disuse after the Norman conquest.
What is so fascinating, at least to me, is that within a space of about three hundred years this had all vanished so completely even from folk memory that the later manor house was built over that burial site apparently without anyone knowing it was there.
The bones had to be removed but there seems to have been no recognition that these were real people and not objects of archaeological interest, and they have, I fear, vanished into county and university offices, in spite of periodic calls for them to be reburied.
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