Mass Grave Suggests Ancient Village Wiped Out by Massacre

The Dead Still Speak

A 7,000-year-old mass grave holding at least 26 adults and children, many of them with smashed skulls and broken legs, is likely evidence of an early Neolithic massacre, a new study finds.
Most of the cranial bones show signs of blunt-force trauma, the researchers said. A number of individuals also had broken leg bones (tibiae and fibulae), indicating they were tortured before death, or mutilated afterward, said the study's lead researcher, Christian Meyer, a bioarchaeologist who conducted the study while at the University of Mainz in Germany.

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Volunteers honoring those buried in unmarked graves at forgotten cemetery for mentally ill

Many graves go unmarked and forgotten.

For almost 80 years, no one is thought to have visited Peter Gauslin's grave.

Relatives didn't know where he was buried or how he died until his great-grandson Andrew Daft began researching family history in 2012 and learned his death occurred at a mental institution. He also discovered that Gauslin, his grandmother's father, is buried in an unmarked grave in Appleton, about 100 miles north of Milwaukee.

Gauslin is among tens of thousands who were buried in unmarked graves around the nation during the 20th century after dying at state- or county-run psychiatric hospitals, then called insane asylums or sanitariums. Families were either too poor for a headstone, couldn't be reached or had forgotten about their relatives.

Read more about the unmarked graves 

The 'oldest tree in Europe' discovered in a Welsh cemetery

5000 year old yew tree in Wales

I don't normally blog about trees (well perhaps Family Trees) but as this one is in a cemetery its worthy of note. Experts say a yew tree found in St Cynog’s churchyard in Wales, is probably Europe’s oldest living thing.

The tree is more than 5,000 years old, that's 3,000BC. It started growing about 500 years before the Pharaohs in Egypt built the Great Pyramid of Giza. And it was a sapling at about the time work first began on building Stonehenge.

If only it could talk.

Down syndrome in medieval France

The 1500 year old skull of a young girl with Down Syndrome

New research by archaeologists in France have discovered what is believed to be the oldest case of Down syndrome in the archaeological record. Archaeologists had originally discovered the skeleton of a young girl aged about 6 years old in 1989, when they excavated it along with 93 other skeletons from a 5th to 6th century cemetery located near the Abbey of Saint-Jean-des-Vignes in northeastern France. Researchers had suspected at the time of the excavation that the child may have had Down syndrome, but they believe they can now confirm the diagnosis.

Saxon bones are significant archaeological discovery

Bones unearthed by landscape gardeners laying a driveway at a house in Purley have been hailed as a significant archaeological discovery after it was confirmed they are at least 1,200 years old.
The skull and thigh bone discovered in Riddlesdown Road on April 14 have been analysed by experts who say they are Saxon and date back to between 670 and 775AD.

Read More On The Saxon Bones

Over 1,000 bodies found buried on University of Mississippi Medical Center grounds

Over 1,000 bodies found buried on University of Mississippi Medical Center grounds. The graves are believed to have been patients at the Mississippi State Lunatic Asylum in the 19th century.
The State Lunatic Asylum opened on the site in 1855, housing 150 patients.

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Have archaeologists discovered the grave of Alexander the Great?

Could archaeologists have discovered the grave of Alexander the Great?

 

Alexander The Great

 At a site in Greece archaeologists have uncovered what could be the grave of Alexander the Great. The warrior king - who ruled much of the known world in the 4th century BC - was thought to be buried in Egypt. But a few experts now believe otherwise after they uncovered a marble-faced wall 500 metres long and three metres high under an artificial mound, dating from the right time in history. However many believe it will turn out to be the grave of some other important individual.

Family plans to restore historic cemetery

A western Kentucky family is planning to restore a cemetery that's the resting place for a Revolutionary War soldier who counted Thomas Jefferson among his friends.

Read More at

http://www.bgdailynews.com/news/state/family-plans-to-restore-historic-cemetery/article_e577f729-f45c-58a8-a0a3-9ebc7f5ed7b6.html

Coffin Plate Of Masadias R Lewis

Masadias R Lewis

Died Aug 21st 1872

Aged 7 yrs 10 mos

For more coffin plates go to Ancestors At Rest

Defiant villager leaves developers stumped over gravesite

A villager refusing to concede to a property developer’s demands to move a family gravesite off a piece of land left construction workers no choice but to dig around the grave, leaving behind a bizarre sight.

Read More At

http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1102155/stumped-property-developers-unable-get-rid-nail-grave

Shallow graves unearthed at Helsinki’s Senate Square

A broken hot water pipe under Senate Square presented researchers with a unique opportunity to conduct historical excavations at the ancient grave site.
The area served as a graveyard from the mid-1600s to the 1820s. Bodies were stacked elbow to elbow in as many as five layers.

 Read More At
http://yle.fi/uutiset/shallow_graves_unearthed_at_senate_square/6367204

Northumberland coast's ancient grave secrets to be saved from sea

When 4,000 years ago the people living on a windy stretch of magnificent Northumbrian coastline looked for a place to bury their dead, they chose a beautiful spot - a low hillock of dry land above marshes and creeks, in sight of the sea but a kilometre safely inland.
Now the sea is lapping at the ancient graves, and its time to excavate the entire site at Low Hauxley, and rescue what remains of its ancient secrets.

Read More At

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/oct/30/northumberland-coast-excavation-ancient-secrets?newsfeed=true

Ancient graves excavated in hunt for Mona Lisa

Researchers have opened ancient graves in a dilapidated convent in Florence as they continue their hunt for the woman who inspired Leonardo da Vinci to paint the famous Mona Lisa.
The team of experts have been working in the Saint Orsola convent since April, believe the body of the woman who modelled for da Vinci back in the 16th century is buried there.
According to Italian art historians, the real Mona Lisa was Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a rich Florentine silk merchant named Francesco del Giocondo, who is thought to have commissioned the portrait - although there is no definitive proof of this.

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http://www.newstrackindia.com/newsdetails/2012/10/03/196-Ancient-graves-excavated-to-hunt-model-for-Leonardo-da-Vinci-s-Mona-Lisa-.html

Vampire graves discovered near Black Sea

Archaeologists have excavated two suspected "vampire" graves in the Black Sea town of Sokopol, Bulgaria. Each 700-year-old skeleton had an iron rod pinned into its chest. This reflected the customs and the times, when villagers feared that bad men had the power to rise from their graves.






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Monastic cemetery find “unique”, say archaeologists

The discovery of the bodies of 15th century monks has been described as “unprecedented” by archaeologists. The monastic cemetery was uncovered earlier this week by contractors undertaking roadworks in St Andrews, Fife. Experts working on the site have been excited by the find, which they say helps pinpoint the location of a friary lost during the Reformation. They say the remains are those of Franciscan monks who once lived in the area, and have described the find as “unique” due to its town centre location.


http://www.deadlinenews.co.uk/2012/03/23/monastic-cemetery-fine-unique-say-archaeologists/

Headless Romans found in York were gladiators

80 skeletons of well-built young men, gradually exhumed from the gardens of a York terrace over a decade, suggests that the world's best-preserved gladiator graveyard has been found.




http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/jun/07/york-gladiator-graveyard?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487

No More Kisses For Oscar Wilde's Grave

For decades, fans of Oscar Wilde have paid tribute to the Irish writer by leaving kisses on his tomb at Paris's famed Pere Lachaise Cemetery. But years of greasy lipstick smears have badly damaged the memorial, a stone angel designed by modernist sculptor Jacob Epstein.

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Anne Bronte Gets a New Grave Stone

A new plaque has been installed at Anne Bronte’s grave in Scarborough England to ensure that visitors will be able to read the inscription for many years to come. The grave, which is located in St Mary’s Churchyard, has been subject to weathering and erosion over the years and had become illegible in places. Anne Bronte, the youngest of the three world-famous Bronte sisters, died at the age of 29 in 1849.

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War grave Lusitania gives up its sea-bed secrets

I am sure not many of us had ancestors on the Lusitania but its an interesting story.

The first images of artefacts that have been recovered from the 'Lusitania' the world's largest passenger underwater war grave.

The objects which include the ship's telemotor, telegraph and two porthole windows are now in saltwater tanks in a laboratory in Tralee, Co Kerry, having been recovered on Monday as part of an archeological exhibition in the making of a documentary by 'National Geographic' magazine.

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Pioneer graves found at school site

Almost a dozen 180-year-old graves, including those of three children, have been discovered during an archeological excavation at the site of a former elementary school in Amherstburg Ontario.

Read more: http://www.windsorstar.com/life/Pioneer+graves+found+school+site/5209311/story.html#ixzz1UdnCwe9v