"The Bone Chests" by Cat Jarman

December 1642: the English Civil War between the Royalists and the Parliamentarians is raging. 

The Parliamentarians occupy the city of Winchester and storm into the city cathedral.

 

The cathedral had been a fixture in the city since 1079, replacing a church building known as the Old Minster first built in 648. The Old Minster had housed the bodies of many Anglo-Saxon ruler until they were removed, the bones placed in 10 chests in the then-new cathedral. 

 

The Parliamentarians weren’t fond of relics, statues of saints, and stained glass. After wrecking much inside the cathedral, the soldiers turned their attention to the chests, which monks had placed high above the floor in the hope that they would be out of reach. They weren’t. Six of the chests were destroyed outright and the bones scattered. The remaining four were emptied. What stopped the full destruction was the appearance of the local people determined to protect what was left. Not surprisingly, the soldiers decided they were finished for the day. 

 

The great stained-glass window was wrecked by the solders launching the emptied bones through the glass.

 

The Bone Chests: Unlocking the Secrets of the Anglo-Saxons tells the story of what happened to the chests and the bones they contained. The author, Cat Jarman, is editor of British Archaeology Magazine, and tells that story, and she does a lot more. The chests become the mirror she holds to the Anglo-Saxon age, with the era’s kings and queens, the battles with the Vikings, the battles among themselves, and the role of Christianity and great cathedrals like Winchester. 

 

It's a captivating tale. Jarman organizes the story by the bone chests themselves, the four surviving chests and the two replicas built after the Restoration of 1660. She details the considerable forensic and archaeological work undertaken in Winchester as well as other, connected places (including Madgeburg, Germany). She describes how the bones were gradually gathered up and but back in the boxes, often in a jumble. Hundreds of years later, scientists examined the bones in an effort to determine which bones might belong to which ruler. Along the way, she provides the history of each ruler and the times they lived in.

 

Cat Jarman

Jarman is a bioarchaeologist and field archaeologist specializing in the Viking Age and also the Rapa Nui (Easter Island) Her studies include the use of isotope analysis, carbon dating, and DNA analysis. She previously published River Kings: The Vikings from Scandinavia to the Silk Roads. Jarman received her Ph.D. degree in Archaeology from the University of Bristol. Her thesis involved a forensic analysis of Viking Age burials, including a mass grave of 300 individuals. 

 

The Bone Chests is a fascinating study, not only of the times and people who ruled but also how archaeologists have worked to determine the bones’ identities.

 

Top photograph: the great west window of Winchester Cathedral. The shattered glass from 1642 was collected and made into a mosaic. Image from Wikipedia. 

 

Some Monday Readings

 

Do We Owe Loyalty to Institutions? – David Deavel at The Imaginative Conservative. 

 

The dangers of digital media – Samuel Walters at The Critic Magazine.

 

This Forgotten Valley – Brian Miller at A South Roane Agrarian. 

 

The First and Best Writing Advice I Ever Received – Lincoln Michel at Counter Craft.

 

Poetry Prompt: O, Soul – Tweetspeak Poetry.