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British
skeleton could unearth Medieval mysteries
Tuesday,
January 24, 2006 Posted at 5:12 PM EST
London
— A medieval cemetery containing about 1,300 skeletons has
been discovered in the central English city of Leicester,
archeologists said Tuesday.
The
bones were found during a dig at a site being developed as part
of a shopping mall, to cost about $725-million.
University
of Leicester archeologists say the find promises to shed new
light on the way people lived and died in the Middle Ages.
“We
think, probably outside London, this must be one of the largest
parish graveyards ever excavated,” said Richard Buckley,
director of University of Leicester Archaeology Services.
“Archeology
will tell us a lot from the rubbish people throw away. We can
really learn about the lives they were leading.
“But
it's very rare that we get a look at a (whole) population
itself. It's quite a tightly dated group.”
Mr.
Buckley said the graveyard was probably used from the 12th
century until the demolition of a church at the site in 1573.
Communal
graves and the many skeletons of children provide evidence of
high infant mortality and contagious diseases, Mr. Buckley said.
What
is believed to be Britain's largest medieval cemetery was found
at Bishopsgate London in 1999. It contained more than 10,000
bodies.
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