https://www.theguardian.com/science/201 ... hopped-off
Grim stuff but interesting. The idea must be that the men were crminals or somehow considered to be a threat tot he local community.
Of course the cutting off of their legs could also be as reference to witchcraft. It is known that some at this time seem to have believed in witchcraft and the ability to send out a litch, or walking corpse.
Birling (After Rome) refers to a particuarly hideous burial. A young girl was buried, respectfully but then an elederly woman was buried on top of her. What makes this a rough find is that the older woman was patently alive when she was entombed and was trying to work her way out of the burial pit. Whereup someone threw a used millstone onb to her and smashed her hip.
It is assumed the older woman had something to do with the death of the younger, but nasty stuff nonetheless - and where was the church?
Early Anglo Saxon burials
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Minimalist
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Re: Early Anglo Saxon burials
Probably cheering them on as the church was prone to do.
Something is wrong here. War, disease, death, destruction, hunger, filth, poverty, torture, crime, corruption, and the Ice Capades. Something is definitely wrong. This is not good work. If this is the best God can do, I am not impressed.
-- George Carlin
-- George Carlin
Re: Early Anglo Saxon burials
Possibly but it isn't all bad Birling reports a burial of a young girl of 21. She had wet leprosy but the evidence is that she had been cared for. When she was in her grave her christian veil was drawn across her ravaged face. To do this someone had to climb into the grave and adjust the veil. That was a brave and tender gesture.
Re: Early Anglo Saxon burials
The recent (fairly) evidence that Anglo-Saxon setllements in East Kent and Norfolk seem to have put their cemeteries on high ground (sight lines) and near paths leading to the settlements is generally supposed to have been to signal all and sundry that "we" own this land. The dead as markers.
It is probably coincidence but it is interesting that there are theories that Bronze age peoples used the bones of their ancestors to do the same thing in a slightly more grizzzly way. Ther is apparent evidence that bronze age remains were systematically disturbed on a regular basis and may have been used in ceremonies to mark boundaries etc.
How one exactly proves this is beyond my comprehension but recent discoveries of human remains in the chalk floored buildings at Durrington Walls near Stonehenge seem to confirm something like this was going on a human thigh bone was discovered under the floor of one houose/hut and other remains in other structures.
It is probably coincidence but it is interesting that there are theories that Bronze age peoples used the bones of their ancestors to do the same thing in a slightly more grizzzly way. Ther is apparent evidence that bronze age remains were systematically disturbed on a regular basis and may have been used in ceremonies to mark boundaries etc.
How one exactly proves this is beyond my comprehension but recent discoveries of human remains in the chalk floored buildings at Durrington Walls near Stonehenge seem to confirm something like this was going on a human thigh bone was discovered under the floor of one houose/hut and other remains in other structures.