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Great blog by doctoral student Gemma Angel about the postmortem preservation of tattooed human skin - check it out!
Via The Chirurgeon’s Apprentice
Mexico mass grave was 'ancient cemetery' in Chiapas -
Anthropologists in Mexico say the remains of 167 bodies found in a cave in the southern state of Chiapas were part of an ancient burial ground.
The National Anthropology Institute said tests showed the remains dated back to the eighth century.
Scientists hope pottery found in the cave will help them determine the community those buried belonged to.
New forensic techniques in archaeology reveal existence of high status Africans living in 4th Century AD York
“A picture of multi-cultural Britain in 4th Century AD has been revealed using the latest forensic techniques in archaeology. The new research, published in the March issue of the journal Antiquity, demonstrates that Roman York of the period had individuals of North African descent moving in the highest social circles.
Dr Hella Eckardt, Senior Lecturer at the University of Reading, said: “Multi-cultural Britain is not just a phenomenon of more modern times. Analysis of the ‘Ivory Bangle Lady’ and others like her, contradicts common popular assumptions about the make up of Roman-British populations as well as the view that African immigrants in Roman Britain were of low status, male and likely to have been slaves.”
“To date, we have had to rely on evidence of such foreigners in Roman Britain from inscriptions. However, by analysing the facial features of the Ivory Bangle Lady and measuring her skull compared to reference populations, analysing the chemical signature of the food and drink she consumed, as well as evaluating the evidence from the burial site, we are now able to establish a clear profile of her ancestry and social status.
“It helps paint a picture of a Roman York that was hugely diverse and which included among its population, men, women and children of high status from Romanised North Africa and elsewhere in the Mediterranean.”
The ancestry assessment suggests a mixture of ‘black’ and ‘white’ ancestral traits, and the isotope signature indicates that she may have come from somewhere slightly warmer than the UK. Taken together with the evidence of an unusual burial rite and grave goods, the evidence all points to a high status incomer to Roman York. It seems likely that she is of North African descent, and may have migrated to York from somewhere warmer, possibly the Mediterranean.
The Ivory Bangle Lady was a high status young woman who was buried in Roman York (Sycamore Terrace). Dated to the second half of the fourth century, her grave contains jet and elephant ivory bracelets, earrings, pendants, beads, a blue glass jug and a glass mirror. The most famous object from this burial is a rectangular openwork mount of bone, possibly from an unrecorded wooden casket, which reads ‘Hail, sister, may you live in God’, indicating Christian beliefs.”
paging glossy and nom and all black!helga haters
yeah this was a major trigger for the writing of glossycanon
Super major. Super flawless.
Gina Torres is 1700 years old?
Yes, Rodman. She’s a witch. She has had congress with the beast.
(via lostinhistory)
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Dead Bachelors in Remote China Still Find Wives -
2006 article from the New York Times. Fascinating.
To ensure a son’s contentment in the afterlife, some grieving parents will search for a dead woman to be his bride and, once a corpse is obtained, bury the pair together as a married couple. […]
Villagers and Mr. Yang, the funeral director, said a family searching for a female corpse typically must pay more than 10,000 yuan, or about $1,200, almost four years of income for an average farmer. Families of the bride regard the money as the dowry they would have received had death not intervened.
Like many good things, via Order of the Good Death.
Events mark 400th anniversary of Pendle witch trials -
The 400th anniversary of the Lancashire witch trials will be marked by a series of 40 events, it has been announced.
The two-day trials in 1612 led to 10 people being hanged at Gallows Hill in Lancaster, after being found guilty of causing death or harm by witchcraft.
Commemorative activities include the launch of a sculpture trail in the woods near the village of Barley.
There will also be guided tours at Lancaster Castle, where the accused were imprisoned.
The programme of events starts on 18 March with a guided walk.
Secrets of St Albans’ Roman burial urns unlocked
CT scanners are being used to help unlock the secrets of five Roman burial urns that were discovered at a housing development in Hertfordshire.
Conservators at the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre were called in by archaeologists excavating at King Harry Lane in St Albans.
Work is being done to discover whether the remains inside the cremation urns belong to adults or children.
The urns were found at the entrance to a late Iron Age defended settlement.
Micro-excavation
Kelly Abbott, contract conservator with the Wiltshire Council Conservation Service, said: “Unlocking the mystery of these urns could provide a fascinating glimpse of life during the time of the Roman Conquest.
“Two of the urns contained bones which could be human. An osteoarchaeologist will now examine the bones and help provide even more detail.”
Using the CT images to guide them, the conservators have detailed the contents of the urns and made the finds stable.
Once the cremations have been removed from the urns, the bones will be cleaned and dried under laboratory conditions.
The information gathered from this micro-excavation will then be sent to the archaeologists who will be able to interpret the evidence alongside the archaeology already discovered.
Archaeologists have determined that the site at King Harry Lane, was of significant importance.
St Albans, known as Verulamium, was a key site in the Roman period and as such, these cremation urns, along with the other archaeology on the site, are seen to be nationally important.
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Lost in History: Remains of dark ages princess found in field in Cambridge -
The remains of a mysterious Anglo-Saxon princess, who died thirteen and a half centuries ago, have been found in a field three miles south of Cambridge.
Aged just 16 when she died, and buried lying on a special high status funerary bed, she was laid to rest…
Mary Rose skeletons studied by Swansea sports scientists
Skeletons recovered from the wreck of a King Henry VIII’s warship the Mary Rose are being studied to discover more about life in medieval times.
Swansea University sports scientists are hoping to find out more about the toll on the bodies of archers who had to pull heavy bows.
It is documented that archers were aboard the ship when it sank in 1545.
The wreck was raised from the Solent in 1982, containing thousands of medieval artefacts.
The ship, which is now based in Portsmouth where a new museum is being built to house her, also had 92 fairly complete skeletons of the crew of the Mary Rose.
Police ‘protect identity of the dead’ by covering headstones with bubblewrap as they exhume pauper’s grave
Detectives bizarrely wrapped more than 20 graves and headstones in bubble-wrap and tape at a cemetery to ‘protect the identities’ of the dead.Police officers painstakingly covered each tombstone in plastic sheeting to spare any of those buried - most decades ago - from being identified.
The operation was carried out on Friday before detectives started exhuming the body of a man from a pauper’s grave…
I really loathe posting stories from the Daily Fail, but y’know, needs must and all!
What happens to uncollected ashes? -
With more people being cremated rather than buried after death, ash-scattering ceremonies are gaining in popularity. But what happens when it doesn’t go according to plan - or if no-one collects the remains?
There is a moment in the film The Big Lebowski where the Dude (Jeff Bridges) and Walter (John Goodman) take their late friend Donny’s ashes to a cliff top. Walter insists on saying “a few words”, then scatters Donny’s mortal remains from a coffee tin.
But prevailing winds mean that Donny, instead of ending up in the “Pacific Ocean, which he loved so well”, ends up all over the Dude.
For a meaningful, solemn occasion to be unexpectedly blown off course is a real and increasing phenomenon. We want to say the right words, in the right place, at the right moment and with all the right people in attendance. But it doesn’t always go according to plan…
Concealed shoes: Australian settlers and an old superstition -
Items of clothing found concealed in Australian buildings tell the story of a battle waged by early settlers with the evil spirits they feared were lying in wait in their unfamiliar surroundings.
A shoe hidden in a bridge. A prisoner’s uniform stashed under a staircase. Toys concealed in an attic. A dead cat secreted into a roof cavity.
Together, they sound like the disparate ingredients of a gothic horror novel: Stephen King meets Anne Rice, or Stephenie Meyer.
And they do share something of the aforementioned authors’ taste in the twilight world of the supernatural.
That’s because they’re some of the bizarre artefacts discovered at sites across Australia, all linked to a mysterious world of folk magic.
Folk, in that they were hidden by ordinary people. Magic, because they were designed to ward off evil spirits.
Fascinating stuff! Click the link for the rest of the article.
I feel completely trashy posting something from The Mirror, but what the hey.
A doctor at the hospital was quoted as saying: “Thanks to the local tradition of parking the coffin in the house for several days, she could be saved.
But, despite ‘cheating’ death, the same local tradition has left Mrs Xiufeng with nothing as, according to tradition, after a person dies, all their belongings must be burnt.
(via lostinhistory)
