Archaeologists performing an evaluation for the installation of an elevator in a medieval English cathedral made a startling discovery: Under an unremarkable section of floor was an entire tomb full of coffins.
According to the BBC, this “extremely well preserved” eight foot deep tomb was discovered in Gloucester Cathedral. When a neighboring ledger stone was lifted, a small hole gave a window into the undisturbed tomb, which belonged to the Hyett family of around 1700. Needless to say, it caused a bit of a shock.
“What you normally find when you dig up a ledger slab is earth and bones, there’s nothing specific in there,” said cathedral archaeologist Richard Morriss.
“But we can just see into a genuine intact family vault. You would expect the cathedral to have been restored time and time again. The floors get churned up and re-laid, but this has stayed intact. The coffins are extremely well preserved, you can still see the name plates. And the name plates actually match up with the names on the ledgers above, which is remarkable.”
Moriss added that the family appeared to have been “pretty wealthy” to afford the tomb, which is situated in the heart of the cathedral.
Not all excitement
But the discovery isn’t all excitement, for within the tomb is the coffin of a 9-month-old baby girl. The Reverend Canon Celia Thomson described the coffin as “particularly poignant”. “You can just imagine the grief of the parents at that stage. It brings history to life,” she said.
The tomb was not the only discovery of dead people; when the ledger stone was lifted, a number of re-deposited human bones, including multiple skulls, were also uncovered.
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Images: Courtesy of BBC Inside Out West
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