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The unexplained mystery behind the burial pit where more than 100 bodies were found | UK News

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The unexplained mystery behind the burial pit where more than 100 bodies were found | UK News


Archaeological dig in the grounds of Leicester Cathedral
The bodies were found as part of archaeological excavations in the grounds of Leicester Cathedral
(Image: AP)

archaeologists A vertical shaft containing 123 bodies was uncovered, but how they died remained a mystery until now.

The remains of men, women and children, thought to date from the early 12th century, were discovered in gardens a few meters away. Leicester Cathedral.

This is one of the largest pit burials ever excavated in the UK. Guard reports.

It is not yet known why the bodies were placed in the well or what led to their deaths.

Mathew Morris, project manager at the University of Leicester’s archaeological services, said: ‘There are no signs of violence in their bones; “This leaves us with two alternative causes of these deaths: hunger or epidemic,” he said. ‘Currently the latter is our main working hypothesis.’

Mathew said excavations showed that the bodies were placed in the well in three pieces at rapid intervals.

‘It looks as if carloads of bodies were brought to the well, one load after another, in a very short time, one load after another, and then dumped there,’ he said.

He and his team believe that the people put in the well probably represented about 5% of the town’s population at the time.


Archaeological excavation in the grounds of Leicester Cathedral starting in October 2021
The burial pit is one of the largest in the country (Image: AP)

He said there had been other pit graves in the area before, but this was the largest and the team had difficulty finding other ‘comparable’ graves in the country.

Mathew explained that epidemics, fevers, hunger and famine are mentioned repeatedly in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles from the mid-10th century to the mid-12th century.

He added that the burial fits into this time period and provides physical evidence of what was happening across the country at the time.

The team initially thought the buried people were victims of the Black Death, but radiocarbon tests on the bones showed they lived about 150 years before the disease reached the shores of England in 1348.

Hoping to find the actual cause of death, samples were sent to geneticists at the Francis Crick Institute in London, where experts searched for viruses, bacteria or parasites.


The completed stone tomb of Richard III in Leicester Cathedral
Richard II’s body was buried in Leicester Cathedral after it was found under a nearby car park 12 years ago (Image: PA)

King III. Richard's skeleton unearthed under car park
King III. Richard’s skeleton unearthed under the car park (Image: PA)

The excavation, which began in 2021 and has now completed, was part of the archaeological investigation carried out following the approval of plans to build a new heritage learning center on the cathedral’s grounds.

The centre, Leicester Cathedral’s III. It is hoped it will help Richard cope with the increasing number of visitors following the discovery of his body. under a nearby parking lot 12 years ago and his subsequent reburial in the cathedral.

The archaeological team also discovered the remains of 1,237 men, women and children buried in the gardens from the early 11th century to the 19th century.

“This is an 850-year series of continuous burials of a single population from one location, and you don’t see that very often,” Mathew said. ‘It revealed a tremendous amount of archaeology.’

Other findings include Anglo-Saxon dwellings and a roman temple.

Contact our news team by emailing us at [email protected].

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