Remains of slaves found at Nashville Zoo

The remains of nine people, believed to be enslaved African-Americans, have been found on the grounds of the Nashville Zoo.

They were relatively young people of African descent, worn down by years of hard labor.

Six of them had arthritis. One man walked with a limp, and a woman endured fractured vertebrae in her lower spine. A young, probably heavyset man had a damaged hip — and maybe sickle cell anemia, too.

They were almost certainly slaves on the old Grassmere farm, a large tract of land in South Nashville that’s now used for a different purpose: the home of the Nashville Zoo.

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Story: Michael Cass, The Tennessean | Photo: TRC Nashville

Polish Roman-era village excavated

Archaeologists working in the Carpathian Mountains in Poland are excavating a village which dates back to the 3rd-4th centuries A.D.

Village from the Roman period, dating from 3rd-4th century AD, has been discovered in Lipnica Dolna near Jas?o (Subcarpathia). Among approx. one thousand archaeological objects there is a large pottery kiln, in which ceramics were fired.

“The kiln is two meters in length and the same in width. It stands on a small tip in the Wis?oka valley. Its location shows that the wind blowing from the river was used to maintain the temperature during the firing cycle” – said Tomasz Leszczy?ski, archaeologist from the Subcarpathian Museum in Krosno.

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Story: PAP | Photo: Darek Delmanowicz, PAP

Byzantine monastery found in Israel

The remains of a walled compound which may have been used as a monastery has been found west of Jerusalem.

Zilberbod said that although they found no unequivocal evidence of religious worship — such as a church or an inscription — the compound holds typical features of Byzantine monasteries.

“The impressive construction dating back to the Byzantine period. The magnificent mosaic floors, windows and roof tile artifacts, as well as the agricultural-industrial installations inside the dwelling compound, are all known to us from numerous other contemporary monasteries,” Zilberbod said.

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Story: New Kerala | Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Remains of Egyptian woman with 70 hair extensions found

The remains of a woman who lived 3,300 years ago in the ancient Egyptian city of Armana has been found, complete with an elaborate hairstyle made up of 70 hair extensions.

She was not mummified, her body simply being wrapped in a mat. When archaeologists uncovered her remains they found she wore “a very complex coiffure with approximately 70 extensions fastened in different layers and heights on the head,” writes Jolanda Bos, an archaeologist working on the Amarna Project, in an article recently published in the Journal of Egyptian Archaeology.

Researchers don’t know her name, age or occupation, but she is one of hundreds of people, including many others whose hairstyles are still intact, who were buried in a cemetery near an ancient city now called Amarna.

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Story: Owen Jarus, LiveScience | Photo: Jolanda Bos and Lonneke Beukenholdt

New study reveals Richard III removed his helmet

Analysis of the remains of King Richard III shows he received nine wounds to the skull when he died during the Battle of Bosworth in 1485.

The results, published in The Lancet, show that Richard’s skeleton sustained 11 wounds at or near the time of his death — nine of them to the skull, clearly inflicted in battle and suggesting he had removed or lost his helmet, and two to the postcranial skeleton.

Sarah Hainsworth, study author and Professor of Materials Engineering at the University of Leicester explains, “Richard’s injuries represent a sustained attack or an attack by several assailants with weapons from the later medieval period. The wounds to the skull suggest that he was not wearing a helmet, and the absence of defensive wounds on his arms and hands indicate that he was otherwise still armoured at the time of his death.”

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Story: The Lancet | Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Gas chamber found at Sobibór Nazi death camp

Holocaust researchers have located a gas chamber at the Sobibór death camp that killed an estimated 250,000 Jewish people in 1942-43.

Historians already knew that the Germans operated the gas chambers at Sobibor from April 1942 to October 1943, killing an estimated 250,000 Jews brought from across Europe. But they have many unanswered questions about the operation of the site because there were very few survivors and most of the site was dismantled during the war by the Germans.

“Any small piece of information we can add to our knowledge is a great thing,” said Yoram Haimi, an Israeli archaeologist who has spent the past eight years digging at the site. The team that found the remains of the building also includes a Polish and a Dutch archaeologist.

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Story: Vanessa Gera, AP | Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Bog body found in Ireland

The lower leg bones of an adult have been found in Ireland’s Rossan Bog.

A team of archaeologists and conservators from the National Museum of Ireland spent last weekend examining the find at the bog before removing the remains on Monday.

They have yet to determine the gender or age of the body, but are convinced the remains are those of an adult.

Further analysis of the bog body will now take place in the National Museum of Ireland’s conservation laboratory at Collins Barracks, Dublin.

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Story: Eoghan MacConnell, The Irish Times | Photo: National Museum of Ireland /PA Wire

First-century Roman fort found in Germany

A Roman fort dating back to the first century has been found in southern Germany.

In the course of an educational dig in Gernsheim in the Hessian Ried, archaeologists have discovered a long lost Roman fort: A troop unit made up out of approximately 500 soldiers (known as a cohort) was stationed there between 70/80 and 110/120 AD. Over the past weeks, the archaeologists found two V-shaped ditches, typical of this type of fort, and the post holes of a wooden defensive tower as well as other evidence from the time after the fort was abandoned.

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Story: ScienceDaily | Photo: Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main

5,000-year-old stone monument identified in Israel

A crescent-shaped stone monument that dates back 5,000 years has been identified in Israel.

Located about 8 miles (13 kilometers) northwest of the Sea of Galilee, the structure is massive — its volume is about 14,000 cubic meters (almost 500,000 cubic feet) and it has a length of about 150 meters (492 feet), making it longer than an American football field. Pottery excavated at the structure indicates the monument dates to between 3050 B.C. and 2650 B.C., meaning it is likely older than the pyramids of Egypt. It was also built before much of Stonehenge was constructed.

Archaeologists previously thought the structure was part of a city wall, but recent work carried out by Ido Wachtel, a doctoral student at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, indicates there is no city beside it and that the structure is a standing monument.

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Story: Owen Jarus, LiveScience| Photo: Google Earth

Tomb of emperor’s grandma unearthed in China

A tomb complex belonging to the grandmother of China’s first emperor has been unearthed in Shaanxi Province.

Archeologists have excavated two carriages pulled by six horses each from the tomb, a symbol of high rank to equal that of the emperor, which has confirmed former estimations that Qin Shi Huang’s grandmother was buried here.

Jade, gold and silver fragments, as well as elegantly engraved pottery buried with the owner of the grave, have additionally helped establish the facts.

This is the second largest tomb ever to be discovered in the country, experts said, adding that emperor Qin Shi Huang is likely to have built the tomb himself.

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Story: China.org.cn | Photo: Weibo user Dynasty Ruins

3,000-year-old sword found in China

A Bronze short sword which dates back 3,000 years has been found by an 11-year-old playing near the Laozhoulin River in China.

While washing hands in the river, Yang touched the tip of something hard and fished out the metal sword. He took it home and gave it to his father Yang Jinhai.

Upon hearing the news, people began flocking to Yang’s home, the father said.

“Some people even offered high prices to buy the the sword, but I felt it would be illegal to sell the cultural relic,” Yang said.

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Story: Xinhua | Photo: Wikimedia Commons

4,000-year-old shipwreck found in the Mediterranean

A shipwreck found in the Mediterranean Sea which dates back 4,000 years is being hailed as one of the oldest shipwrecks in the world.

Urla Port is one of Turkey’s rare underwater excavation sites. Professor Hayat Erkanal, the head of Limantepe excavations for the underwater ancient city of Klozemenai and director of ANKÜSAM, said the port dates back to the seventh century B.C. Klozemenai, he explained, was a coastal town, making it the home of many sunken ships from different eras. An earthquake in the eighth century left the city underwater.

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Story: Hurriyet Daily News | Photo: Hurriyet Daily News

A Blog About History readers demonstrate remarkable accuracy

For the past few days, A Blog About History been featuring a poll on the sidebar asking readers if Scotland should leave the UK after over 300 years or stay in the UK.

The poll results were split right down the middle at 50% for each side!

As the world saw yesterday, Scotland voted 55% to 45% to stay in the UK. This means that our readers successfully remained with 10% of the actual vote.

I just thought that was an interesting observation to share!

Lost Franklin Expedition ship found

One of the lost Franklin Expedition ships has been found near King William Island in the Canadian Arctic.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper says one of Canada’s greatest mysteries now has been solved, with the discovery of one of the lost ships from Sir John Franklin’s doomed Arctic expedition.

“This is a great historic event,” Harper said.

“For more than a century this has been a great Canadian story.… It’s been the subject of scientists and historians and writers and singers. And so I think we have a really important day in mapping together the history of our country,” the prime minister said.

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Story: CBC News | Photo: Parks Canada/Canadian Press

Peach trees domesticated 7,500 years ago in China

New research has revealed that farmers began to domesticate peach trees 7,500 years ago in the Yangtze River Valley in China.

Peach stones are well represented at archeological sites in the Yangtze valley, so they compared the size and structure of the stones from six sites that spanned a period of roughly 5,000 years. By comparing the size of the stones from each site, they were able to discern peaches growing significantly larger over time in the Yangtze valley, demonstrating that domestication was taking place. The first peach stones in China most similar to modern cultivated forms are from the Liangzhu culture, which flourished 4,300 to 5300 years

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Story: University of Toronto | Photo: University of Toronto

Franklin Expedition artifacts found in Nunavut

Two artifacts believed to have belonged to the doomed Franklin Expedition have been found on Hat Island in Nunavut, Canada.

“An iron fitting from a Royal Navy ship, identified as part of a boat-launching davit, and bearing two broad arrows was found on an island in the southern search area,” said the government of Nunavut in a news release.

“A wooden object, possibly a plug for a deck hawse, the iron pipe through which the ship’s chain cable would descend into the chain locker below, was also discovered.”

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Story: CBC New | Photo: Douglas Stenton, Government of Nunavut

Copper Age settlement found in Spain

The remains of a previously unknown 4,000-year-old settlement have been uncovered in central Spain.

Researchers from the Tübingen collaborative research center Resource Cultures (SFB 1070) have uncovered the remains of a previously unknown Copper Age settlement in the central Spanish region of Azután. Working with colleagues from the University of Alcalá de Henares, they found shards and stone tools over an area of around 90 hectares.

Typological analysis placed the finds in the Copper Age or Chalcolithic period – the transitional era after the Stone Age before metallurgists discovered that adding tin to copper produced much harder bronze, 4,000-5,000 years ago.

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Story: Phys.org | Photo: Felicitas Schmitt/University of Tübingen

Suit of 3,900-year-old bone armour unearthed in Russia

A suit of armour made out of bone has been unearthed in Omsk, Russia.

Archeologists are intrigued by the discovery of the complete set of well-preserved bone armour which is seen as having belonged to an ‘elite’ warrior. The armour was in ‘perfect condition’ – and in its era was ‘more precious than life’, say experts.

It was buried separate from its owner and no other examples of such battle dress have been found around Omsk. Analysis is expected to determine its exact age but Siberian archeologists say it dates from 3,900 to 3,500 years ago.

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Story: Kseniya Lugovskaya, The Siberian TImes | Photo: The Siberian Times

Stone Age boat found off Denmark coast

A Stone Age settlement and boat have been found off the cost of Askø Island in Denmark.

The ancient six to seven metre long vessel is estimated to be 6,500 years old – in comparison, the oldest Pyramid in Egypt is a mere 4,500 years old – and although it is damaged, archaeologists are finding it very interesting.

“It split 6,500 years ago and they tried to fix the crack by putting a bark strip over it and drilling holes both sides of it,” Jørgen Dencker, the head of marine archaeology at the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde, told DR Nyheder. “That two-millimetre wide strip has been preserved.”

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Story: CW, Copenhagen Post | Photo: The Viking Ship Museum

1,500-year-old Papyrus referring to Last Supper found

An ancient piece of papyrus, thought to be the first ever found to refer to the Last Supper, has been found by a researcher looking through the vaults of a library at the University of Manchester.

On one side, it has a combination of biblical passages from the books of Psalms and Matthew, while on the other is part of a receipt for payment of grain tax.

Dr Mazza said the amulet maker “would have cut a piece of the receipt, written the charm on the other side and then folded the papyrus to be kept in a locket”.

She said the use of written charms was an ancient Egyptian practice, which was adopted by early Christians, who replaced prayers to Egyptian and Greco-Roman gods with passages from the Bible.

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Story: BBC News | Photo: University of Manchester

Roman jewelry hoard found in England

A horde of Roman jewelry has been found during department store renovations in Colchester, England.

The collection includes three gold armlets, a silver chain ?necklace, two silver bracelets, a substantial silver armlet, a small ?bag of coins, and a small jewellery box containing two sets of gold earrings and four gold finger-rings. We excavated the jewellery in a solid block of soil, so that it could be excavated and carefully recorded under controlled conditions off-site. The items are still to be fully excavated, but we expect the conservation process to reveal more objects. The finds have been transferred to a secure conservation laboratory.

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Story: The Colchester Archaeologist | Photo: The Colchester Archaeologist

Royal Chariot found in China

The remains of a 3,000-year-old bronze royal chariot have been excavated in northwest China.

“It is 2.4 meters long and 1.8 meters wide, and the two wheels are 1.4 meters in diameter,” Zhang said.

The wheel rims were made from lengths of bronze 15 cm thick and 5 cm wide. The wooden spokes had rotted away during the 3,000 years the chariot was buried in the ground.

“The bronze wheels are very rare,” said Lei Mingming, a member of the team from the Shaanxi archaeology institute. “The wheels of chariots from the Western Zhou Dynasty that have been found previously were made of wood covered with a 1-cm layer of bronze.”

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Story: Ma Lie, China Daily chi| Photo: Wikimedia Commons

2,000-year-old toilet seat found at Vindolanda

A wooden Roman toilet seat has been found in a garbage trench at the Roman fort of Vindolanda.

“It is made from a very well worked piece of wood and looks pretty comfortable.

“Now we need to find the toilet that went with it as Roman loos are fascinating places to excavate – their drains often contain astonishing artefacts.

“Let’s face it, if you drop something down a Roman latrine you are unlikely to attempt to fish it out unless you are pretty brave or foolhardy.”

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Story: BBC News | Photo: Vindolana Trust

Viking boat timbers used to build houses in Ireland

An excavation of a Viking settlement in Ireland has should that the settlers used wood from their long-boats to build houses and jetties.

Archaeologists also discovered sections of mud and wattle walls, door posts, sections of the bow of a Viking boat, fragments of decorated hair combs, metal artefacts, coins, bronze clothing pins for tying cloaks, shoe leather, fish bones, and scales, and cat skulls.

Ms Brett said the discovery of the remains of an 11m jetty some 3m to 4m inside the modern-day quay walls was among the more significant finds.

“We also found an axe head nearby which showed that they were working the wood for the jetty on site,” she said.

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Story: Eoin English, Irish Examiner | Photo: Irish Examiner

6,500-year-old oven found in Croatia

A 6,500-year-old oven has been found at the site of a Neolithic home in Croatia.

The 6,500-year-old oven was unearthed in a ancient home during an archeological dig at a Neolithic site in Bapska, a village in eastern Croatia, which experts say is one of the most important in Europe. Experts say the oven provided cooked food, hot water and central heating for their dwelling, just like a modern-day Aga.

Lead researcher Marcel Buric – from the Department of Prehistoric Archaeology at Zagreb’s Faculty of Philosophy – said the find was significant because the kiln was covered to protect the rest of the building from fire. “This discovery is important. Because the houses of this period are made of wattle and daubed with a roof made of hay using an open fireplace was dangerous. But a roofed fireplace, like the one in Bapska, besides being safer, also had other advantages,” he explained.

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Story: Croatian Times | Photo: Croatian Times

Viking Ring Fortress discovered in Denmark

It was 1013 and the unthinkable had happened. A Viking sat on the throne of England as king. The story of how Sweyn Forkbeard took the crown from Æthelred (the Unready) is well known. However, events unfolding in a field on the Danish island of Zealand may help to shed new light on the details of that event.

Archeologists from Aarhus University and from the Danish Castle Centre have begun to excavate what may be the first Viking Ring Fortress to have been discovered in sixty years. While the excavation is still preliminary, British experts in archeological geophysics were called in to survey the site. Their measurements of the magnetic fields of the soil confirmed the presence of a nearly perfect circular embankment surrounding the site, with a dug out moat just beyond. According to Nanna Holm, curator of the Danish Castle Centre , this is a perfect match for previously discovered Viking Age fortresses. “It is a huge monument. The fortress measures 145m from side to side. We recognize the ‘Trelleborg’ fortresses by the precise circular shape of the ramparts and by the four massive gates that are directed at the four corners of the compass. Our investigations show that the new fortress was perfectly circular and had sturdy timber along the front; we have so far examined two gates, and they agree exactly with the ‘Trelleborg’ plan. ”

“Fortresses built like this one were only built in the Viking Age,” she explained. The only question is whether this fort was built by Sweyn’s father, Harald Bluetooth, or if it had been built by an earlier Danish king. “The date will be vital. If we can establish exactly when the fortress was built, it will help us to understand the historical events with which it was connected.”

These events may well be a turning point in history. It is commonly believed that Sweyn’s raids on England, starting in 1002, were launched from these ring fortresses as revenge for the purging of England of Danish colonists on St. Brice’s Day, 1002. If so, this newly discovered fortress may give us new insights into the men who would eventually place Sweyn on the throne and help him build a dynasty whose blood still sits on the thrones of Denmark and Great Britain to this day.

Whenever the fortress was built, it already seems apparent it had a front row seat on the turbulent times that were the Viking Age. Holm was eager to point out evidence had already been found indicating that the fort might have seen combat. “We can see that the gates were burned-down; in the north gate we found massive, charred oak posts.” If so, this could very well be direct evidence of the events of 986, when Sweyn usurped his father’s throne and sent him away to die in exile.

At this point very little is actually known for certain from the site. Initial radio carbon dating on the charred gate is still a few weeks from being completed, and no excavations have been started inside the ring. Only one thing is absolutely beyond doubt. For Archeologists and Viking enthusiasts, this could very well be the discovery of the century.

James Hinton is an armchair historian and Army veteran with a fascination for how civilized ‘barbarians’ actually were. He sometimes writes for Norwich University’s online Masters of History program.

Photos: Wikimedia Commons, Atlas Obscura

100 medieval graves unearthed in Oslo

Archaeologists working ahead of a railway expansion project in Oslo have uncovered 100 medieval skeletons.

Egil Bauer, who’s leading the archaeology project for NIKU, said the skeletons found this summer can help researchers learn more about what Oslo residents ate in the Middle Ages, what illnesses they had, their ages when they died and where cemeteries were located. “That can also tell us what rank they held in society,” he said.

The archaeologists believe the skeletons date from 1100-1400 when the area featured several churches. Around 3,000 people are believed to have lived in Oslo at the time.

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Story: NewsinEnglish.no | Photo: NIKU

Phoenician artifacts found off Malta coast

50 Phoenician amphorae and 20 grinding stones have been found in a shipwreck off the coast of Malta’s Gozo Island.

University of Malta researcher Timothy Gambin said Monday the 20 grinding stones and 50 amphorae from the ship date back to around 700 B.C.

Experts hope to find parts of the ship and other artifacts beneath the sandy seabed 1 mile (1. 6 kilometers) off Gozo island. They say the ship probably was sailing between Sicily and Malta when it sank.

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Story: AP | Photo: Wikimedia Commons

The real Paleo Diet: Snails

New research has revealed that ancient humans ate snails as a regular part of their diet.

Hundreds of burnt snail shells were found near fireplaces along with tools and other animal remains in rock shelters along a cliff in Spain. The finding suggests Paleolithic people on the Iberian Peninsula ate snails more than 10,000 years earlier than those who lived in the neighboring Mediterranean region.

The snails probably didn’t make up a calorically significant part of these Paleolithic people’s diet, but may have provided key vitamins and nutrients, said study lead author Javier Fernández-López de Pablo, an archaeologist at the Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social in Spain.

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Story: Tia Ghose, Live Science | Photo: Fernández-López de Pablo et al.

Sunken WWII cruiser identified

A sunken ship found in the Java Sea has been identified as the USS Houston which suck during the Battle of the Sunda Straight on February 28th, 1942.

After analyzing all of the data, an assessment from the Naval History and Heritage Command concluded that all of the recorded data is consistent with the identification of the wrecked vessel as the former USS Houston.

The site of the sunken ship, while a popular recreational dive site, is the final resting place of approximately 700 Sailors and Marines. The assessment noted signs that unknown persons removed hull rivets and a metal plate from the ship. U.S. and Indonesian representatives are currently coordinating to develop measures to prevent continued disturbance of the site.

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Story: U.S. Pacific Fleet Public Affairs | Photo: U.S. Navy/MC3 Christian Senyk

European skull found in 1,400-year-old Chinese tomb

A skull that appears to have belonged to a European man has been found in a 1,400-year-old tomb in northwest China.

“The man had a protruding nasal bone and a sunk nasion, which are typical features of Europeans,” said Zhang Quanchao, professor with the Research Center for Chinese Frontier Archaeology of Jilin University.

Zhang believes the skull belonged to a 40-year-old man of European origin.

Further excavation is needed for a firm conclusion, he said.

[Full story]

Story: Xinhua | Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Bronze Age cooking trough found in Ireland

Archaeologists in Ireland have unearthed a Bronze Age wooden cooking trough, known as a fulacht fiadh, that was exposed by storms last winter.

“It is very significant, as it is unusual to find a fulacht fiadh at such a level of preservation, but the sea obviously conserved it when levels began to rise,” he said. “While thousands of fulacht fiadh have been recorded and excavated during road-building schemes, most of them are stone-lined and have a mound of burnt stone nearby. We found no firecracked stones near this structure, but the wattle surround could be unique.”

Preservation in situ of the archaeological material was “not a realistic option”, as the timbers were not fastened to any underlying structure and would not have survived another period of storms, he said.

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Story: Lorna Siggens, Irish Times | Photo: Joe O’Shaughnessy

Celtic metal workshops excavated in France

Archaeologists are working to excavate Celtic metal workshops at a fortified settlement in central France.

The aim of the excavation is to identify the building layout north of the main road in the area adjacent to the main gate of the oppidum. To date, archaeologists were able to identify workshops of bronze-smiths and enamellers. It is a sloping terrain, so the ancients constructed terraces on which they erected buildings. Buildings had several storeys, with entrances located at different levels.

“This year, we discover mainly traces of metallurgical operations, primarily slags, but also coins and fibulas, or pins. After two weeks of work we have also dug up close to 100 kg of fragments of ancient amphorae. This number is likely to increase significantly before the study ends” – said Dr. Bochnak. He added that the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus wrote that an amphora of wine cost as much as the slave who would carry it. On the whole site, since the studies resumed in the 1980s, archaeologists have discovered more than 30 tons of this type of vessels.

[Full story]

Story: Science & Scholarship in Poland | Photo: T. Bochnak

Anglo-saxon graves uncovered on Salisbury Plain

75 Anglo-Saxon graves have been discovered during an excavation at Barrow Clump, on Salisbury Plain.

A surprising Anglo-Saxon burial, found in a crouched position, a range of weapons, including spearheads and shield bosses, and the fourth example of a brooch-bearing woman were among the highlights during five weeks of investigations at Barrow Clump, a Neolithic settlement which later became a Bronze Age burial mound and Saxon cemetery,

A photo of a long dark brown Anglo-Saxon sword recovered from a burial clump

Archaeologists were excited to unwrap the sword© Wessex Archaeology

“The finding of the Anglo-Saxon sword, by Steve Winterton, couldn’t have been better scripted,” said Phil Andrews, of Wessex Archaeology, who admitted that this year’s excavations had exceeded his “relatively modest” expectations.

[Full story]

Story: Ben Miller, Culture24 | Photo: Wessex Archaeology

Humans were culturally diverse before leaving Africa

New research has revealed that there were at least four distinct cultures living in North Africa between 130,000-75,000 years ago.

The researchers from the University of Oxford, Kings College London and the University of Bordeaux took over 300,000 measurements of stone tools from 17 archaeological sites across North Africa, including the Sahara. For the first time they combined the stone tool data with a model of the North African environment during that period, which showed that the Sahara was then a patchwork of savannah, grasslands and water, interspersed with desert. They also mapped out known ancient rivers and major lakes, building on earlier research by Professor Nick Drake, one of this paper’s co-authors. By modelling and mapping the environment, the researchers were then able to draw new inferences on the contexts in which the ancient populations made and used their tools. The results show, for the first time, how early populations of modern humans dispersed across the Sahara, one after the other ‘budding’ into populations along the ancient rivers and watercourses.

[Full story]

Story: Phys.org | Photo: Phys.org

Bodies of 120 Black Death victims found in Spain

Excavations under the Basilica of Sant Just i Pastor in Barcelona has led to the discovery of a mass grave containing the remains of 120 victims of the plague.

The excavation took place over the course of 2012, and shows that the burials were carefully carried out. The corpses were unclothed, and wrapped only in linen shrouds, lined up in rows, 11 bodies deep, and were then covered with quicklime dissolved in water to attempt to stop the disease spreading and mask the smell of the rotting bodies. Dominique Castex of the University of Bordeaux, who is coordinating the excavation as part of a broader investigation the institution is leading into the Black Death in Europe, says the find is unique and of great historical value: “This is the first such site we have found in Spain, and we believe it can tell us a great deal.”

[Full story]

Story: José Ángel Montañés, El Pais | Photo: Irene Gibrat