Medieval Skeleton
- Thread starter danie
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No, this is a medieval cemetary dug up relatively recently close to Cambridge, England. The holes are in side of the skulls and it is the where the skulls are very thin. Probably when the coffin collapsed the weight of the earth made the holes. Some might actually be bashed but the majority is because of time. When the support of the coffin goes suddenly it sometimes causes holes like that in the skulls. The skull is often the part that lies highest and therefore takes much of the impact.
I thought it was a picture of NY Giants fans after The Cowboys game....
not just thinking dead bodies. There could be artifacts!
I understand it can be quite a sticky wicket in England if the government declares your find a “Treasure.”
You are correct about the Bombs. When i was digging in Leipzig i came across a bomb the allies dropped during the war. It was not clear if it was exploded or not. We had a special number to call if that occurred. Strictly told not to poke around with it. So i had to stop the digging in that area for a few hours until the specialists arrived.
Hmm yes, it says something that I went to dead bodies first. That said, the two are often synonymous - dead people were buried with their riches.
I was in Belgian/Northern France about 10 years ago and visiting some WW1 sites. Talked to a bomb disposal guy who goes around defusing first world war artillery that keeps getting churned up. The quality of the ammunition in the early parts of the war was was poor - about 1/4 of shells fired in the somme did not detonate, just sank. In that battle alone, that is 200,000 shells or something. So they estimate they have enough full time work for another 80 years.
A lot of what archaeologists find is things being thrown away, you know. Plates, tools, a broken knife and so on. Thats how we see everyday life. And christians are often so boring (from an archaeological point of view) in that they don't have any gravegifts. Other than perhaps nice clothes but they are gone anyway.
Kurben, what are some of the most interesting artifacts you've dug up?
If were talking graves i dug up an iron age grave once where the urn that held the ash was still whole without any cracks after all that time. That was interesting and rather rare. It can look something like that and if you imagine a pile of stones on top of it you got it.
When i dug up an viking age site i found a clip used to keep their clothes together that was very beautiful.
Dating to about 900 AD
My fave is the dance of death, or Dance Macabre a drawing or rather a motive that became common in arts after the big plague hit Europe for the first time 1348-1351 (called the Black Death). Then it returned with uneven intervals for more than 300 years and was a great inspiration for artists.
I understand the old theory that the Black Death was spread by rats, mice and fleas has been replaced with a new theory that the Death was passed along through airborne particles... which is the only explanation as to why it spread so quickly.
That depends It is established by DNA that it was Yersinia Pestis, a bacterium, that was the culprit. It caused several types of Plague. Lice, Rats were carriers. It was the black rat, not the now more common brownrat which is not as pleased to live very close to humans. The most usual were the Bubonic plague (about 50% died) but there were at least two more Blood (100%) and Lung(100%). But i doubt the airborne particles. That does not explain why some areas were totally unaffected by the plague and also not why it made a halt during winter and did not spread as fast. In short distances the lung plague could probably spread by air but not from one village to another. Also it is typical that many outbreaks is connected with merchants ships arriving in harbours. Then they didn't have to travel by humans but by the travelgoods inland. If you refused to take the goods, which were nbecessary for survival many times you died so the traveling continued. And the explanation, they did not understand it all, the reason or how it worked. Some people could afford to isolate themself completely but it was a rarety. They did more later on when they got more experience. Also this was the only outbreak were all forms of plague is noted. Later outbreaks were one or two but not all three. And it reached Sicily fall 47 but didn't reach the northern parts of Europe until 51-52 so it didn't spread like the wind.
It strikes me that i might have lectured some in this thread. Sorry, did not mean to climp on a soapbox or something. Its just a subject i'm very interested in. History geek, thats me!!
I was just getting ready to ask a Mod to message you about taking over my thread.
Just kidding! When I started the thread, it was a Kurt lure to get you talking about skeletons and such.