Cemetery Found Under Cambridge
An interesting new discovery at Cambridge :D
One of Britain’s largest medieval cemeteries containing the remains of more than 1,000 people has been unearthed under part of the University of Cambridge.
The hospital cemetery, which catered largely for scholars who had fallen on hard times, was found during excavations beneath the Old Divinity School at St John’s College.
About 1,300 burials and 400 complete skeletons were discovered there as part of the refurbishment of the Victorian building three years ago, but the details have only now been made public.
Historians had been aware of the existence and the location of the cemetery since the 1950s, but the scale of the burial ground was unclear until now.
The bodies, which are mostly from the period between the 13th and 15th centuries, are burials from the Hospital of St John the Evangelist, which stood opposite the graveyard until 1511, and gave St John’s College its name.
Dr Craig Cessford, from the university’s department of archaeology and anthropology, said it was one of the largest discoveries of its kind in the UK.
Read more here
One of Britain’s largest medieval cemeteries containing the remains of more than 1,000 people has been unearthed under part of the University of Cambridge.
The hospital cemetery, which catered largely for scholars who had fallen on hard times, was found during excavations beneath the Old Divinity School at St John’s College.
About 1,300 burials and 400 complete skeletons were discovered there as part of the refurbishment of the Victorian building three years ago, but the details have only now been made public.
Historians had been aware of the existence and the location of the cemetery since the 1950s, but the scale of the burial ground was unclear until now.
The bodies, which are mostly from the period between the 13th and 15th centuries, are burials from the Hospital of St John the Evangelist, which stood opposite the graveyard until 1511, and gave St John’s College its name.
Dr Craig Cessford, from the university’s department of archaeology and anthropology, said it was one of the largest discoveries of its kind in the UK.
Read more here