18th-Century London Burial Thwarted Grave Robbers

LONDON, ENGLAND—Newsweek reports that an excavation team from the Museum of London Archaeology found a sand-filled coffin covered with heavy stones among the 25,000 graves in the New Churchyard, also known as the Bedlam Burial Ground, in the center of London. Archaeologist Robert Hartle explained that the sand and stones may have been intended to thwart body snatchers. The unusual sand-filled coffin dates to between 1720 and 1739—a time when bodies were sold illicitly to anatomy students for dissection. Hartle added that archaeological evidence of body snatching is extremely rare. To read in-depth about the illicit trade in dead bodies, go to “Haunt of the Resurrection Men.”