Archaeology
Anglo-Saxon monastery was a social and religious centre
Archaeologists from the University of Reading have been conducting excavations at Cookham Abbey, located adjacent to the Holy Trinity Church in Cookham, England.
Excavations have revealed a large timber structure, one of the main buildings within an Anglo-Saxon monastery known as Cookham Abbey.
According to the researchers, the timber structure functioned as a social and religious centre, giving new insights into monastic life at Cookham.
The team have also uncovered a preserved timber barrel-lined shaft containing wooden artefacts, a walled monastic enclosure fronting the River Thames, and a cemetery with over 50 burials spanning three generations.
The monastery was first discovered in 2021, with archaeologists dating the site to the reign of Cynethryth, a Queen of Mercia during the 8th century AD. Cynethryth joined a religious order and became royal abbess of the monastery after the death of her husband, King Offa, in AD 796.
Professor Gabor Thomas, from the University of Reading, said: “The discoveries we have made at Cookham will help us paint a much clearer picture of daily life at the monastery. We will need to carry out a more detailed analysis of what we have found, but the artefacts unearthed at this year’s dig again show the exceptional quality of preservation at Cookham.”
Previous excavations have identified the layout of the wider complex, which was organised into a series of functional zones demarcated by ditched boundaries. One of these zones appears to have been used for housing and another for industrial activity, indicated by a cluster of hearths probably used for metalworking.
Header Image Credit : University of Reading
Archaeology
Ornate grave goods found in Murom burial ground
Archaeologists from the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences have been excavating a burial ground associated with the Finnic Muromians.
The Finnic Muromians were groups of settlers that lived within the vicinity of the Volga and Oka rivers. They spoke Muromian, an Uralic language that became extinct following their assimilation by the Slavs.
The burial ground, which dates from the early 10th century AD, was discovered on the eastern bank of the Oka river, located in the Nizhny Novgorod Region of Russia.
A total of seventeen burial pits have been identified, nine of which have been severely damaged through looting.
The surviving 8 burials contain the remains of four children, two women, and two men.
The men were accompanied with an ornate collection of grave goods, including arrowheads, knives, bronze bracelets, iron plates, a bronze buckle, and a whetstone.
At the bottom of one of the pits is a heavily corroded axe, along with a flint that has traces of iron-coated embossed leather and textile threads.
The burials containing women were also accompanied with high status funerary goods, such as a necklace of red-brown prismatic and dark blue berry-shaped beads of Byzantine origin, signet ring-shaped pendants, plate bracelets, a bronze spiral, and a silver ring.
Traces of wood within the pit fillings suggest that they originally contained a wooden structure, similar to a log house made of thin beams and covered with birch bark.
According to the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences: “The culmination of the discoveries at the site were two clay vessels, testifying to direct and close contacts between the right-bank Muromians and the Old Russian population.”
Header Image Credit : Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Sources : Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences
This content was originally published on www.heritagedaily.com – © 2023 – HeritageDaily
Archaeology
Ghastly finds at gallows execution site
![](https://conspirazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/gast2-S78Iej.jpeg)
Archaeologists from the State Office for Monument Preservation and Archaeology of Saxony-Anhalt are currently excavating the site of a former gallows in Quedlinburg, Germany.
Gallows are usually wooden structures made of two vertical posts, a horizontal crossbeam, and a hanging noose. They have been used for executing criminals by hanging, a prevalent form of capital punishment in Europe since the Middle Ages.
Archaeologists are currently excavating a gallows site on Galgenberg, or ‘Gallows Hill,’ which was used for public executions by the courts in Quedlinburg from 1662 to 1809.
Excavations have revealed complete and partial burials in the area, along with bone pits containing multiple bundled burials, likely the result of mass executions carried out in a short period.
Image Credit : LDA
According to the State Office for Monument Preservation and Archaeology of Saxony-Anhalt, “these discoveries provide unique insights into penal practices from the Middle Ages and early modern times.”
A burial unrelated to the gallows has also been unearthed, featuring a wooden coffin containing the skeletal remains of an individual buried with a rosary chain.
Archaeologists propose that the burial’s characteristics suggest that the individual was likely a suicide victim, denied burial in consecrated ground so was placed in the cemetery near the gallows.
Also discovered is a so-called ‘revenant grave’, where the skeletal remains of a man was found placed on his back with several large stones placed across his chest.
According to the researchers, the stones were likely placed to prevent the individual from rising as a revenant, which are described as animated corpses in the verbal traditions and lore of many European ethnic groups.
In medieval times, those inflicted with the revenant condition were generally suicide victims, witches, corpses possessed by a malevolent spirit, or the victim of a vampiric attack.
Header Image Credit : LDA
Sources : State Office for Monument Preservation and Archaeology of Saxony-Anhalt
This content was originally published on www.heritagedaily.com – © 2023 – HeritageDaily
-
Ghosts2 years ago
Zozo: The Ouija Board Demon
-
Space2 years ago
Scientists claim to have found the answer what existed before the Universe
-
Ghosts2 years ago
Old Coot of Mount Greylock
-
General3 years ago
UC San Francisco engaging in horrifying experiments, organ harvesting of live babies in the name of “science”
-
Archaeology2 years ago
New discoveries at Ekʼ Balam during conservation works