London rail work unearths thousands of skeletons from Bedlam

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-Excite

By JILL LAWLESS

LONDON (AP) — They came from every parish of London, and from all walks of life, and ended up in a burial ground called Bedlam. Now scientists hope their centuries-old skeletons can reveal new information about how long-ago Londoners lived — and about the bubonic plague that often killed them.

Archaeologists announced Monday that they have begun excavating the bones of some 3,000 people interred in the 16th and 17th centuries, who now lie in the path of the Crossrail transit line. They will be pored over by scientists before being reburied elsewhere.

One recent workday, just meters (yards) from teeming Liverpool Street railway station, researchers in orange overalls scraped, sifted and gently removed skeletons embedded in the dark earth. In one corner of the site, the skeleton of an adult lay beside the fragile remains of a baby, the wooden outline of its coffin still visible. Most were less intact, a jumble of bones and skulls.

"Part of the skill of it is actually working out which bones go with which," said Alison Telfer, a project officer with Museum of London Archaeology, which is overseeing the dig.

FULL story and more photos at link.



Archaeologists excavate the 16th and 17th century Bedlam burial ground uncovered by work on the new Crossrail train line next to Liverpool Street station in London, Friday, March 6, 2015. The excavation team estimate there to be 3,000 human skeletons at the site, which was a burial ground to the then adjacent Bedlam Hospital, the world's first psychiatric asylum. The 118-kilometer (73-mile) Crossrail project to put a new rail line from west to east London is Britain's biggest construction project and the largest archeological dig in London for decades. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20150309/eu--britain-bedlam_excavation-8ad8e19bba.html

[dorkzilla]

1. Very interesting...

It reminds me of something I read in the (oddly captivating) book “Necropolis: London and its Dead” by Catharine Arnold. She writes about how the Piccadilly Line curves between Knightsbridge and South Kensington stations because it was impossible to drill through the mass of skeletons buried in Hyde Park.

Thanks for posting!

[Oldtimeralso]

2. I almost jumped for joy when I saw the title.

I first wondered what the GOP caucus was doing in London. Then I started to read the article.
Curses, foiled again!

[Trillo]

3. I always think about these kinds of diggings when

I'm at a cemetery. Last time I was at one, someone tried to sell me a grave in the same cemetery as my parents, IIRC, for something like $6000. Move ahead a few hundred years ... someone is digging the bones up, "Wow, looookieee at what we found"!

[blackspade]

4. Having excavated 50 burials during one project....

I can't imagine excavating a portion of 3000 remains.
It takes a toll on you. I haven't excavated one since 2008...

But there should be some incredible data recovered.

[SoapBox]

5. If only those bones could talk.

[smirkymonkey]

6. Fascinating article.

Very tragic, but I am so fascinated by archaeological finds. It's another piece in the puzzle of history.

[jwirr]

7. For more info on this site google Bethhem Royal Hospital. The burial site was probably part of

that for many years. If so most of these people were mentally ill. I read the Wikipedia history.

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. It was a general cemetary for London, not specifically associated with the hospital

This article gives a better flavour, I think:

Secrets of Bedlam revealed as thousands of bodies unearthed for Crossrail

Bedlam - also known as Bethlem and the New Churchyard - was established in 1569 to help parishes cope with overcrowding during outbreaks of plague and other epidemics.

Located at the western end of Liverpool Street it got its name from the nearby Bethlehem Hospital, which housed the mentally ill.

Many of those buried there were on the fringes of society, and were not associated with a parish or could not afford the fee to be interred in a churchyard burial.

Plague was the most common listed form of death, followed by infant mortality and consumption - with Crossrail workers recently discovering the gravestone of Mary Godfree, who died in September 1665 as a result of the Great Plague which peaked in that year.

http://www.london24.com/news/secrets_of_bedlam_revealed_as_thousands_of_bodies_unearthed_for_crossrail_1_3948719