http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/01/17/remains-of-alfred-the-great-may-have-been-found-centuries-after-legendary-kings-grave-was-lost/
Remains of Alfred the Great may have been found centuries after legendary king’s grave was lost
AP Photo/ Chris Ison, PASt. Bartholomew Church in Winchester, Hampshire, Tuesday Feb. 5, 2013. Archaeologists believe the king's remains may have been moved to an unmarked grave at the Church , which was built using stones from the Hyde Abbey.
As the king who saved Anglo-Saxon England from the Danes, and a military, social and educational reformer, Alfred the Great was laid to rest in the holiest church in Winchester, seat of Wessex royalty.
But over the centuries, his body was moved and the grave was lost, a victim of changing church politics and bad luck.
Now, after a false start, archeologists believe they may have found a part of his remains, languishing previously unexamined among animal bones in a dusty box in a museum basement.
Carbon dating and other analysis, coupled with the historical record and the spot where they were dug up, suggests they are from the cake burner of legend.
The academics knew that Alfred and other members of his family had been reburied at Hyde Abbey in a norther suburb of the city when it was built centuries after their deaths, but the grave was lost after the dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII.
It was thought the remains may have been moved to an unmarked grave at St. Bartholomew’s Church nearby, which was built using stones from the abbey.
The archeologists discovered six skeletons there. But when each was found to date from the 1300s, hundreds of years after Alfred’s death in 899, they turned to remains found in the late 1990s during a previous excavation of the abbey site itself.
In a storage box at Winchester’s City Museum they found a piece of human pelvic bone, including the right hip joint, which had been buried beneath the historic site of the high altar in 1999 but had never been examined.
It was found to have belonged to a young to middle-aged man who died between 895 and 1017, conceivably either Alfred or his son and successor Edward.
Although no DNA tests have been carried out, the bone is almost certainly from a member of the king’s family because it predates Hyde Abbey itself, experts said.
“The simplest explanation, given there was no Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Hyde Abbey, is that this bone comes from one of the members of the West Saxon royal family brought to the site,” said Dr. Katie Tucker, an osteoarcheologist at the University of Winchester, which carried out the excavation.
“However, historical evidence indicates that only the coffins of Alfred and Edward were buried at the site of the high altar.”
Alfred was initially interred at the city’s old minster, but was later moved with his wife and children to another church. All were reinterred at Hyde Abbey after it was consecrated in 1110.
The fact only the pelvis has been found is probably the fault of 18th-century convicts, who disturbed graves while building a prison.
“Almost certainly the royal graves were found in 1788 when they were building a prison on the site,” said Edward Fennell of Hyde900, a local historical society.
“The graves were destroyed and the bones were thrown around and buried hither and thither. That is why finding a random bone is not surprising.”
The society was behind the search for the king’s remains and is calling for further excavations of the abbey site.
Alfred the Great is remembered as the medieval king who protected southern England from the Vikings, as well as introducing a host of social and educational reforms.
Matt Cardy/Getty ImagesA statue of Alfred The Great on Feb. 6, 2013 in Winchester, England. King Alfred lived from 849 AD to 899 AD and is the only English monarch to be afforded the title The Great.
Now, after a false start, archeologists believe they may have found a part of his remains, languishing previously unexamined among animal bones in a dusty box in a museum basement.
Carbon dating and other analysis, coupled with the historical record and the spot where they were dug up, suggests they are from the cake burner of legend.
The academics knew that Alfred and other members of his family had been reburied at Hyde Abbey in a norther suburb of the city when it was built centuries after their deaths, but the grave was lost after the dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII.
It was thought the remains may have been moved to an unmarked grave at St. Bartholomew’s Church nearby, which was built using stones from the abbey.
AP Photo/PA, Steve ParsonsThree grave stones mark the site where Hyde Abbey once stood in Winchester, England, Friday Jan. 17, 2014. Researchers said Friday they may have discovered remains of King Alfred the Great, the 9th-century royal remembered for protecting England from the Vikings and educating a largely illiterate nation.
In a storage box at Winchester’s City Museum they found a piece of human pelvic bone, including the right hip joint, which had been buried beneath the historic site of the high altar in 1999 but had never been examined.
It was found to have belonged to a young to middle-aged man who died between 895 and 1017, conceivably either Alfred or his son and successor Edward.
Although no DNA tests have been carried out, the bone is almost certainly from a member of the king’s family because it predates Hyde Abbey itself, experts said.
“The simplest explanation, given there was no Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Hyde Abbey, is that this bone comes from one of the members of the West Saxon royal family brought to the site,” said Dr. Katie Tucker, an osteoarcheologist at the University of Winchester, which carried out the excavation.
“However, historical evidence indicates that only the coffins of Alfred and Edward were buried at the site of the high altar.”
Alfred was initially interred at the city’s old minster, but was later moved with his wife and children to another church. All were reinterred at Hyde Abbey after it was consecrated in 1110.
The fact only the pelvis has been found is probably the fault of 18th-century convicts, who disturbed graves while building a prison.
“Almost certainly the royal graves were found in 1788 when they were building a prison on the site,” said Edward Fennell of Hyde900, a local historical society.
“The graves were destroyed and the bones were thrown around and buried hither and thither. That is why finding a random bone is not surprising.”
The society was behind the search for the king’s remains and is calling for further excavations of the abbey site.
Alfred the Great is remembered as the medieval king who protected southern England from the Vikings, as well as introducing a host of social and educational reforms.
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