[MR] History Blog: Successive Cemetery Stories

[Garth Groff and Sally Sanford]

Noble Friends,

Today and yesterday the History Blog hosted successive stories about
recently discovered medieval graveyards. I dodged the first in favor of the
anti-tobacco pope, but planned to comment on it today. To my surprise,
another graveyard story popped up this morning, and both are of possible
interest to Scadians.

The first story is somewhat macabre, worthy of a Steven King plot. A
home-owner near Paris was doing some renovation work in his cellar when he
stumbled onto a skeleton buried under the floor. It turned out to be the
first of 38 burials. Some of the graves date to the late Roman period. They
were followed by a series of Merovingian-period graves, then some dating to
the 10th century. All of the remains have been excavated by archaeologists,
and were removed for further study. Wow! Is that creepy, or what?

The story is at https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/71201 .

Today’s History Blog story is about a Viking-era cemetery uncovered in the
village of Åsum (how I got the overring to show above the “A” is a trade
secret!) near Odense, Denmark. Fifty graves and five cremation burials have
been excavated. Several graves held high-status people, including the rich
burial of a woman in the bed of a cart which served as her coffin. The
skeletal remains from many of the graves are in excellent condition, and
researchers hope to recover DNA from the bones.

The story includes front and back photos of a trefoil brooch which would
make an interesting A&S project for a budding Scadian metal worker.

You can read the whole story at
https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/71207 .

Yours Aye,


Mungo Napier, Laird of Mallard Lodge  🦆
Continuing a crusade to keep Merry Rose relevant and in business.