SOMERSET, ENGLAND—BBC News reports that radiocarbon dating of human remains unearthed earlier this year at Beckery Chapel revealed that they date to the fifth or early sixth century A.D. “It’s the earliest archaeological evidence we’ve got for monasticism,” said Richard Brunning of the South West Heritage Trust. The wattle-and daub monastery buildings stood on a small island near the future site of Glastonbury Abbey, which dates to the seventh century. In the 1960s, an excavation at Beckery Chapel unearthed 50 to 60 skeletons. Most of the burials contained the remains of adult males, but the bones of two young men, perhaps novice monks, and a woman’s skeleton, thought to have been a visitor, were also found. Further analysis of the bones could reveal whether the monks were locals, or whether they traveled to region to join the monastery. Burials at the cemetery are thought to have stopped in the early ninth century, when the Vikings attacked southwest England. For more, go to “Legends of Glastonbury Abbey.”
