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Pilgrimage Church Excavated in Hallaton, England

News September 10, 2014

(University of Leicester Archaeological Services)
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(University of Leicester Archaeological Services)
LEICESTERSHIRE, ENGLAND—The remains of a man and a woman who had been buried holding hands have been uncovered at the Chapel of St. Morrell, an ancient pilgrimage site in the English Midlands. The skeletons are thought to date to the fourteenth century, since nine other skeletons of similar age have been unearthed at the site. Stones had been placed upon some of those bodies at burial. “This was a tradition popular in eastern Europe with the idea of keeping the dead down,” archaeologist Vicky Score of the University of Leicester told The Leicester Mercury. Tiles from a Roman building were also discovered beneath the medieval chapel. “It shows this ground has been used as a special sort of place by people for at least 2,000 years,” she said. To read about the discovery of a forgotten graveyard in London, see ARCHAEOLOGY's feature article "Haunt of the Resurrection Men." 

 

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