INTERVIEW WITH HISTORY - 3 - Giles Emery, the archaeologist who turned detective

Giles Emery in  trench

As a popular TV series has taught us, with the term "cold cases" we normally refer to unresolved police cases which are reconsidered once new information about them emerges. Well, the person we are meeting today is involved in a "very cold" case.  In 2004 when Giles Emery, a freelance archaeologist from Norfolk (www.norvicarchaeology.com), was commissioned to remove some medieval skeletons from the bottom of a well on the site where a new Shopping Centre would be built, he couldn't have imagined the effect the job would have on him. The remains turned out to be from 17 individuals, 11 of which were children, and since that very moment the mystery of those deaths has been at the forefront of his mind, as he admits himself. Recently, the BBC show 'History Cold Case' has given Giles the opportunity to uncover more evidence which may help him to find out why these people met with such an extraordinary fate. Now over to him, to hear his version of the facts.

Hi Giles, and thank you for accepting this interview with Archeofilia. 

As an archaeologist you must have excavated the remains of many people from the past, and probably more than once they may have suffered violent deaths, so why have you taken this particular case so much to heart?

    Every grave is different from the last, and although I must have excavated well over a hundred individuals, ranging from Bronze Age crouch burials to medieval monks it is true that this unexpected discovery shocked me. It was pure chance that they were found at all, I had already worked on the site for nearly 5 months excavating and recording archaeology of different historic periods. As the development rolled on the archaeological team finished its work and the entire site was given over to construction, but one last surprise remained. Several months later the operator of a mechanical digger witnessed a skull rolling out from the spoil of a foundation pit 5m below floor level! When I arrived on site I was a little puzzled as to what we were dealing with, no normal burial could be this deep down? It was only when the machine pulled back a heap of soil in the corner of the trench that I was confronted with a tight mass of human skeletons clearly dumped into the base of a small well. At the time I guessed perhaps three of four bodies, but as we began to excavate the number of bones just kept on rising and i began to wonder why so many people had been treated in this seemingly disrespectful way?

     To archeologists most skeletons we find are clear reminders to us that we are not just mechanically collecting objects from the ground but that we are dealing with evidence about the lives of real people. A grave is always a reminder to us that we should excavate with reverence and sensitivity; the very act of placing a person in a grave can show us that the person was once cared for, valued and loved by their friends, family and society. In this case however the story appeared to be very different - the mass burial had taken place away from consecrated ground in a makeshift grave. St. Stephen’s churchyard lies within sight of the well, less than 150m away – so why didn’t these people make it into the churchyard? Were they excluded for some reason? Were they treated differently for a social, moral or ethnic reason? To me this was more than just another group of skeletons to excavate and record, it was a mystery involving the lives of real people who once lived and died in the same town I call home and it really deserved to be investigated further.

What have you found out so far about those people? What do we know about them at this stage?

    At least 17 individuals were buried in the well, by the position of some of the skeletons some of them were obviously dropped in by their ankles. Eleven were juveniles; of these five were children below the age of five. The remains were initially assessed by Francesca Boghi, the excavation teams’ Osteologist and no obvious trauma to explain cause of death could be found. Generally some signs of physical stress and poor diets were indicated, along with several pathologies which include a few healed breaks of minor bones, osteoarthritis and signs of repeated labour involving bending and lifting in the adults and signs of anemia and even possible rickets in the children.

     There are several scientific tests that the History Cold Case team will be pursuing to learn more about the group as a whole. For example, genetic testing may reveal if they represent a specific ethnic group and may also show if some of the individuals are members of the same family. Further evidence for diet and pathology may shed light on the social class of the group and whether they were under particular stress from malnutrition before they died. 3D scanning of the bones may even help to identify or rule out any possible signs of trauma, helping to shed light upon what may have caused the death of so many people at one time.

What do we know about life in this part of England at the time of their death?

    Medieval mass burials in England are often attributed to the Black Death which was responsible for over a third of the population losing their lives, with even higher mortality rates in some towns and cities. However, the bubonic plague didn’t hit Norwich until 1349, perhaps more than a hundred years after the well was dutifully backfilled. The group are currently believed to have been deposited from late 12th to 13th century, indicated by limited Radiocarbon dating and a few sherd of pottery collected from the well, however further scientific dating by the History Cold Case should help to refine this date.

    We know that this period of history in England saw a pretty tough time, as several years of repeatedly poor harvests had led to starvation and misery for many, in this same period political unrest between the King and his Barons flared up into civil war placing even more stress upon the general population. In fact the Bishop of Norwich sided with the King and the town was raided by rebel forces as punishment.

    Burial rites were normally accorded to even the poorest as many medieval institutions were obligated to offer burial as a duty to their fellow Christians. Even hanged criminals were buried in consecrated ground so the treatment of these people seems even more remarkable.

Even if most of the tests still have to be carried out and nothing can be said for certain, you certainly must have an opinion about what happened…

There are a few theories that I am hoping the History Cold Case team can help to either dismiss or pursue further.

     If the group has been treated differently due to some ethnic or religious divide the most obvious theory to examine is that they could represent a mass burial of victims from a Pogram. Until the general expulsion of the Jewish population of medieval England in 1290, Jewish communities suffered several national outbreaks of violent persecution. The first occurred in 1190 following the Third Crusade, when several Jews were murdered in Norwich. Further attacks are recorded in the 1230s, which included the burning of Jewish homes. Hopefully as a result of research by the team this theory can be resolved one way or the other.

    With the lack of obvious trauma I currently have to favor a second, less dramatic theory – that the group represents relatively low status families who succumbed to disease or famine. The high percentage of children in the group could be a sign of such catastrophic mortality and this may be examined further through scientific analysis of the bones and teeth. Although not as infamous as the Black Death epidemics of influenza, typhoid or dysentery were common hazards for those living in a medieval town. The poor of the city would have been hit first and hardest, particularly if this event occurred against a backdrop of widespread famine. So why bury these particular people down a well if they are not being treated differently for some darker motive? – if the town experienced an overwhelming mortality rate in a short space of time, perhaps at a time when the town was already suffering from a lengthy famine, a mass burial making use of a local well may have been the kindest solution available. Despite appearances I am wary of assuming a lack of feeling toward the dead by those who had to carry out what I guess may have been a sad duty for all those involved.

    Whether or not the extra tests help to solve more of this medieval mystery the TV show plans to reconstruct the faces of one of the adults and one of the children, and I am looking forward to seeing the faces of people whose tragic story had been forgotten for over 700 years.

Well, thank you Giles, and please remember to keep us informed about your progress in this unusual case, we are looking forward to producing a follow up article (or why not, a second interview) about the solution to this distant and obscure mystery.