Burial Mysteries
Finding forgotten burial sites, sometimes poses more questions than answers.
Chapelle Dom Hue is a tidal island off the west coast of Guernsey, a British Crown dependency in the English Channel. The place was once a religious retreat for Benedictine monks during the medieval period.
In 2017, excavations found the remain of a 14th -century hermitage. Bones discovered in a grave, were first thought to be human, but turned out to be long to a juvenile porpoise buried there in the 15th century.
Medieval pottery and prehistoric flint have been on the islet, but the one that poses the biggest mystery is the harbor porpoise. It was butchered, and during this period was considered a delicacy. However would a grave be dug for the leftovers of an animal that was eaten. It could have been thrown in the water which was only a few feet away.
Some theorize the carcass was a failed attempt to preserve the meat with salt, however no other animal bones have been found.
Approximately 30 feet from where the porpoise was unearthed a human toe bone was found sticking out from a cliff edge. This was several months after the discovery of the animal’s bones. Wind and rain finally exposed the entire foot.
A nearly complete human skeleton was dug up. The body was laid east to west, indicating it was a Christian burial. He was short, measuring a little over 5 feet in height, and his skull was damaged. Most intriguing was the fact his hands and wrist bones were missing. Since the toes were in good condition, leprosy was not believed to have eaten away his hands. At first it was thought he was a monk who lived on nearby Lihou.
In 2020, radio carbon dating placed the man’s death around 1760, along with the leather buttons found that match those worn by sailors.
The sailor from the British Royal Navy seems to have floated in the ocean for some time before coming up on shore and being buried by the tides. There is a chance fish ate away his hands and digits.
Between 2009 to 2013, archaeologists in Sweden found skulls that were part of Stone Age rituals, at a site that was once a former lake. They belonged to nine adults and one infant. Two were female and four were male, the others are undetermined. The remains of the baby was an almost complete skeleton. The skull had bee mounted on wooden stakes. Animal remains, as well as stone, bone and antler tools, also were unearthed, along 400 intact and fragmentary wooden stakes.
It’s believed that during the Mesolithic Period or Middle Stone Age, a man-made island structure was erected in the lake.
More unusual is the most of the skulls have evidence of “healed blunt force trauma”, but the blows differ by gender. Non-lethal force was used to the back of the women’s heads, and to the top of the men’s heads.
There is a theory the remains belonged to slaves, although slavery was not common among Scandinavian hunter-gatherers of that period. Perhaps the injuries were suffered during raiding skirmishes. According to experts the same gender-related injuries have been found on prehistoric hunter-gatherers in North America.
There is also a possibility the injuries are part of some religious ritual. Archaeologists are unable to establish the cause of death for any of the individuals.
Under a little over 6 feet of clay and peat, archaeologists in Nieuwegein, Holland found the remains of a baby cradled by its mother. The remains date back 6,000 years. Present day the site is a business park, but during the Stone Age hunter gatherers lived along the river.
The woman’s age was 20 to 30 years when she died, and she had her right arms around the infant. However when first unearthed it was not noted the child was there. Her arm was crooked instead of straight like the other skeletons at the site, which made the archaeologists take a closer look. The remnants of the child’s skeleton was found at her side.
